Even when times are good, it's hard to believe that corporate CEOs can look you in the eye and tell you that they've truly earned their outrageous $10 million, $50 million, $100 million or more pay packages.
And right now, times aren't good.

But this week I saw another round of stories on corporate CEOs getting multi-million dollar "bonuses" even as their companies lose millions of dollars.

crossposted from unbossed

You bet! And here are some links to information on this important issue.

How multi-million dollar golden parachutes and exit deals reflect the failure of corporate capitalism or... with a disparity of wealth like this, who needs a depression?
There's something rotten in America. It's not new, it's actually been going on for a long time. It's just worse now than ever. I'm not talking about the ignorance of the electorate (41% of Americans surveyed cannot name one candidate running for the GOP presidential nomination, or the poisoning of the food supply (35 major food recalls this year alone, including those for listeria, e.coli, and botulism), although eating disease ridden food and not knowing the names of who's running for office may be directly related to what I am talking about... which is, the disparity of wealth in america, specifically, the obscenely high exit packages given corporate executives, especialy those who FAILED MISERABLY running companies, compared with what average American familes make.

The lessons of recent days in the financial markets: If you steal peoples’ title to their houses, raid their pension plans, or empty their nest eggs, you better do so on a very big scale.  Stealing on a national level is fine, but on the global level is best.  Only small-time crooks may end up in jail; occasionally even a crook of the Tyco caliber gets into trouble; but the real big ones get bailed out by one government or another.

Cross posted at NoSlaves.com blog

A new study from Bond University says almost two-thirds of the 240 participants in an online survey said the local workplace tyrant was either never censured or was promoted for domineering ways.  From Bad Bosses Get Promoted.

For the past week, I've been on a lovely vacation in gorgeous Aspen, Colorado. One of my best friends comes from an incredibly wealthy family and they definitely know how to roll out the red carpet for their guests.
My friend and I are very close and over the years I've gotten close to his family as well.  Despite their teeming wealth, none of their five children act spoiled in the least bit and I honestly do not know if I have ever come across a more compassionate and friendly family in my life.  

My friend and I are fervent progressives and so are his parents on many social issues. In most families (my own in particular), politics is rightfully viewed as a taboo topic of discussion that does nothing but instigate unhealthy conflict. In this wonderful family, however, healthy disagreement is welcomed and I engaged in plenty of it with my friend's economically conservative father.

crossposted from unbossed

US CEOs are paid twice as much as those in the UK and three times as much as Japanese CEOs.  

It's not that size doesn't matter, but even more important than size are questions about the process that led to those huge salaries and the impact of those salaries.

I just got to read the blog A visit to CEO-Land, by On Puget SoundA visit to CEO-Land

I am not sure how to react to this.  Or what I should or should not say here.  In the Poll it says "This is less important than Iraq, global warming, or other issues, and I'd prefer to see less attention and energy spent on it."  

How very wrong that statement is, how very wrong this whole situation is today.

More....

UPDATE:  2/25/2007

Struck Names intentionally, was tired and should not have done that

This was my world for the past 6 years now.   A world of extravagance, and entitlement that can not be adequately described here by me.  I am not an eloquent writer, I just know what I know.

The life on that end of the financial spectrum is not what you think, not what you imagine. Having enough money to do anything you want, changes everything.  Literally everything.  Life as most American people know it, is completely and utterly miserable compares to the Upper Echelon.  Do they cook at home, and have children, yes.  Do they have problems like you, yes. They are human beings, there are just some distinct differences.

Roy C. Smith, a professor of finance at New York University, recently (Jan. 21, 2007) wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post claiming that CEOs deserve their obscenely high salaries. He said, "most of the CEOs who receive those huge pay packages not only earn them but also, yes, deserve them." However, his arguments are as believable as a CEO’s falsely optimistic financial reports just before the company goes under. One can only wonder what he was trying to accomplish with such a nonsensical piece. (More below)

We hear and read this statistic so often that it glides over the surface of our consciousness without sinking in.  "The average corporate CEO pay is now 400 times the average worker's."  How can we imagine what that means?  Here's a little thought experiment...  

That there brush-clearer from Texas went down to Wall Street today and, just like he claimed not to know Jack Abramoff, pretended that he was shocked to learn about all these high-salary shenanigans by the CEO class (also previously known as "my base").

More below...

Yesterday, we posted on the AFL-CIO Now blog some new health care studies that point to the nation's deteriorating health delivery system.

But health care isn't the only area where America's workers are struggling. Despite Bush administration propaganda, it's still the economy, stupid.

The Labor Department today released figures showing the number of workers filing claims for unemployment benefits rose by the largest amount in five weeks, suggesting, as news reports put it, "the slowing economy is beginning to show up in a weaker employment market." But the larger-than-expected number of people filing for jobless benefits last week--308,000--is one short-term indicator of longer-term trends that have been exacerbated--and in many cases created--by Bush administration policies.

A couple of weeks ago, on May 25th in Wilmington, Delaware, Home Depot held its annual shareholders meeting.  What happened there has been described by observers as "cowardly", "disgusting", "disgraceful" and "contemptous".  It was all of those things.  But it is also extremely telling as to how so many of our major corporations have become organizations that serve no one well, and how they can be taken back and made responsible.

I applaud the Dixie Chicks for having the guts to stick with their beliefs. Let us never underestimate the power of a protest song, whether it's "This Land Is Your Land," "What's Goin' On," or "Ohio."

For my money, the best protest song in years is still flying under the radar. It's "We Can't Make It Here" by James McMurtry. You can hear an acoustic version on You Tube if you type in James McMurtry.

According to McMurtry's web site, the Chicago rock stations started playing the studio version of "We Can't Make It Here" (CD: Childish Things, 2006) and they got mobbed with requests for it.

Don't you hate how the liberal press continually bashes U.S. corporations, yet trips all over itself to praise foreign companies? A case in point:

BMW announces big profit-sharing bonus for workers

BMW AG said Thursday that its German employees could get profit-sharing bonuses worth more than a month-and-a-half's salary following a strong performance last year for the luxury automaker.

BMW said the bonuses, to be paid in July, will be its highest yet. The payments will range up to 156.8 percent of a month's wages, it said, compared with a top level last year of 155.9 percent.

CEO pay appalls me.

When you see when the top execs get in packages, bonuses, retirements, and stock options, it makes your head spin.

This morning on CNN (while on the stairmaster, as usual), there was a discussion of CEOs getting 4 million per year pension plans while employee pension plans get slashed, (they were talking specifically about IBM, and being an IBM brat, I grew up believing in corporate benevolence and the notion of a safe, lifelong, company-funded retirement). This should leave us aghast. What kind of world is it where the leader of the organization gets all this extra bonus while the rest of us throw our money into the stock market lottery 401k mutual fund wishing well, hoping that things turn out great, and if they don't, then we may end up with social security and eat cat food in our 70s

This is cross-posted from AFL-CIO Now blog

A few years ago, he killed Bethlehem Steel.

Now, CEO Robert "Steve" Miller is hacking out huge slices from Delphi--and from the promises made to the men and women who grind out auto parts every day in return for wages, health care and pensions that keeps them in the middle class.  

The 1990s were all about blockbuster CEOs with tough-guy names, like "Chainsaw Al" Dunlop. Dunlop, appointed CEO of Sunbeam Corp. in 1996, was hailed as a corporate "turnaround artist"--until he drove Sunbeam into the ground a mere three years later, with the company in such dire straits employees were paid from a revolving credit line.

Miller is one of those 1990s hold-overs. He and his CEO buddies ushered in an era of false promises, like the myth that massive layoffs, offshoring jobs and other "hard" choices ultimately would make companies--and, it was implied, the nation--stronger and better.

But as their greed grew, so did the brutality of their methods.

America's competency in science is suddenly on Congress' hot burner.  The 108th Congress is holding numerous hearings by various committees from education to commerce to foreign relations with numerous witnesses from industry and education to analyze the problem and possible legislative solutions.  But the solution they are coming up with is disingenuous!