So, did you hear the one about the economy?

I'm sure that you did, and found the punchline as repulsive and sour as I did.

The cruelest joke of them all, however is the pay of the executives of these collective companies that were recklessly run into the ground and then either gobbled up or bailed out.

Don't get me wrong, I feel that CEO's should be allowed to make gobs of money, so long as their stockholders earn as well, relatively speaking.

But if their gambles don't pay off, doesn't it reason that their pay should reflect their performance?

Also, I am painfully aware of the argument that if you don't offer a ridiculous and non-performance based pay, you will not attract the type of talent, and suffer in the end.

But this argument does not address the concept of Social Justice, which is why you have a serious amount of resentment from the "Main Street" that the politicians on bothe sides are so fond of referring to.

The concept of Social Justice has been so readily ignored over the past few years, because we have been lulled to sleep by fantastically appreciating home prices and and and a low unemplyoyment rate artificially represented by low paying jobs pervading the marketplace(Welcome to Walmart, can I replace your Union Job?).

I don't think I am mistaken in my sense that Social Justice will become a growing area of importance to the American Populace that will parallel the growing awareness of the systematic assassination of the American Dream by the few that have been handed so much power over or our economic lives by those in the current administration that would prefer to to answer to no one and rule without oversight.


Here is a list of those few, the Main Offenders, whose exorbitant pay will effectively be footed by us, the American Taxpayer:


Company: Merril Lynch

CEO: Stanley O'neal


Shortly before being let go, Merrill Lynch wrote down 7.9 billion dollars due to O'neal's foray into sub prime lending. Total write downs are approaching 45 billion

Payout: 161.5 million Dollars


Country Wide Financial

Angelo Mozilo


Company's worth shrunk from 25 billion to 2.5 billion, before being bought on the cheap from Bank of America. Mozilo Cashed out his stock options has the bank went into freefall.


Payout: 121.5 million dollars


Citigroup


Charles Prince


In 2007 Citigroup reported a 57% drop in quarterly earnings and lost a quarter of its market value. So he did the honorable thing and...stepped down.


Payout: 68 million dollars




AIG

Robert Willumstad (July 08-September08)

Martin Sullivan (2005-2008)

Maurice (Hank) Greenberg (1968-2005)


AIG, the worlds largest mortgage insurer, saw it's stock plunge from $27 to $2 per share in 2008. Just agreed to an 85 million dollar payout by the Federal Government



Robert Willumstad rejected 22 million dollar severance package (good for him!)


Martin Sullivan 47 million dollar severance package


Maurice (Hank) Greenberg 6-Year Average Compensation in 2003: 25 million dollars per year


WAMU

Kerry K Killinger

Alan Fishman


The appropriately named Killinger, CEO of Wamu since the early 90's, oversaw a rapid expansion of WAMU and its foray into the riskiest types of loans. He was ousted as CEO on September 5.

Fishman was on the job for 3 months before Federal Regulators seized it and brokered a fire sale to JP Morgan Chase

The collapse of WAMU was by far the largest bank failure in US history at over 300 billion dollars.

Killinger Up to 22 million dollars

Fishman Up to 13 million dollars or $928,571 PER DAY during his tenure


Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

Daniel Mudd and Richard Syron


While boasting of feasting on the reduced competition in the market place and rejecting internal warnings, Fannie slumped 85 percent and Freddie's Value sank to negative 5.6 billion dollars


Payout: Zero!.






While Syron has made over 17 million dollars in compensation since 2003, regulators shot down any severance pay for the two CEO's.





Bear Stearns


Jimmy Cayne


Too busy competing in bridge tournaments to deal with his company's precipitous slide, Jimmy was hard to reach by anybody while Bear Stearns was purchased by JP Morgan Chase for $10 dollars a share, down from $170 in 2007. During the slide, Poor Jimmy saw his personal fortune dwindle from 1 billion dollars to a paltry 600 million


Cayne dumped his Bear stock during the JP takeover, and got a payout of 61.3 million dollars.


Oh, he'll also receive about 5 million in JP stock


Indy Mac Bank

Michael Perry


Perry, a protege of the aforementioned Michael Mozilo, lorded over a bank for 15 years that became the second largest bank failure in US history, second only to the recent WAMU collapse.


His payout is unknown for sure, but Forbes reports that it was in the neighborhood of 38 million dollars.


Lehman Bros

Richard Fuld

These are all unbelievable numbers, to be sure, but the King Daddy of them all, the Hannibal Lecter, Charles Manson, and OJ Simpson of the financial world is none other than Richard Fuld

Lehman Bros, a 158 year old company that weathered the Great Depression, declared bankruptcy on September 15th.




Over the last five years of his tenure, Mr. Fuld raked in 354 million dollars by cashing in options and selling off of his stock. That is NOT a typo. 354 million dollars, and some reports have it closer to 500 million. For those of you with a difficulty processing zeroes, that is a HALF A BILLION DOLLARS.

So, read em and try not to weep. I'll try to have better news for you on my next post.




The godless liberal