Experts: Executive Pay Still Out of Control

[denverbill]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&e=8&u=/nm/20040218/ts_nm/governance_summit_compensation_dc

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Executive pay at U.S. companies is still out of control, with only the smallest glimmer of hope for improvement, corporate governance experts said on Wednesday.

With the year-long bull market rescuing most stocks from a three-year slide, many executives are set to cash in on stock options this year and pick up hefty bonuses after a year of higher profits.

"Most chief executives are taking a deep breath because the pressure seems to be off," said veteran corporate reform expert Ira Millstein, senior partner at Weil Gotshal Manges, speaking at the Reuters Corporate Reform Summit.

U.S. CEOs now get paid more than 500 times what the average worker earns, according to a survey by Towers Perrin, compared to about 10 times in Japan. In 1980 it was only about 40 times.

<snip>
Well, they deserve all that money. They work 500 times harder than us ordinary people. It's not easy shipping jobs overseas.

[loudnclear]

1. Yeah, and so is ome of the exec pay for Federal workers and special

consultants...all under Bush. Government is big but guess why?

[denverbill]

2. Well, those are likely 'privatization' consultants.

You know, the ones that save taxpayers all that money by giving money to private corporations like Halliburton?

[maggrwaggr]

3. I read in Fortune a while back that if minimum wage had

kept pace with CEO pay, minimum wage would be something like 28 bucks an hour

[denverbill]

7. And the rich are the ones whining the most about taxes.

Jesus H Christ. Most of these freeloading cheapskate misers earn more in one year than I will make in a lifetime, after taxes. And their effective tax rate, counting in Social Security, is already lower than mine.

[lovedems]

4. What pressure is gone? The pressure to run an above board company?

I guess they are breathing a sigh of releif because now they can go back to cooking the books. Obviously, they will do what it takes to make Wall Street look good. It is the ONLY proof they have the economy is improving.

You know, I hate that I have to be this skeptical of our own government.

This is further proof this administration hasn't done one stinking thing for working americans. I saw a report the other day that corporate profits are the highest they have been in 50 years. Why can't those profits translate into american jobs?

[Just Me]

5. Concentration of wealth is a symptom of a sick democracy,...

"Most chief executives are taking a deep breath because the pressure seems to be off,"

That statement makes me ill!!!

These people are greedy, evil Gekkos and screw everybody in order to feed their sick egotistical obsessions.

We really need an administration that will acutely rein in the uncontrollable greed in this country.

[denverbill]

6. Too bad nobody reads Adam Smith anymore.

"All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind."
-- Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations

"No society can surely be flourishing and happy when part of the members are poor and miserable."
-- Adam Smith, Wealth Of Nations

"Our merchants and master-manufacturers complain much of the bad effects of high wages in raising the price, and thereby lessening the sale of their goods both at home and abroad. They say nothing concerning the bad effects of high profits. They are silent with regard to the pernicious effects of their own gains. They complain only of those of other people."
-- Adam Smith, Wealth Of Nations

"People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices."
-- Adam Smith, Wealth Of Nations

http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/Quotes-economics.htm

[htuttle]

9. Right wingers always tout Adam Smith...

...but they never actually READ what he wrote!

Hell, if you give unattributed quotes from Wealth of Nations to a typical Republican, they would assume it was from some 'pinko socialist'.

Hmm...I think I'll test that assumption some time -- could be fun...

[aquart]

8. Unpay the execs and keep the jobs here.

It's actually that simple. The high ups are taking the money that would be paid to the average working stiffs.

It isn't going back to investors. It's being stolen by greedy nation-destroying execs. They are bleeding us like leeches. The only one who benefits from the bloodletting is George, who promises to protect them.

[pfitz59]

10. War profiteers are traitors........

How many of these CEOs are looting companies with Federal contracts?