Oil, defense CEOs cash in

[Kadie]

Oil, defense CEOs cash in
Energy execs got 50 percent pay hike as crude prices soared; defense big wigs doubled take since Iraq war began - report.
August 31 2006: 1:45 PM EDT


WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Top U.S. executives in the oil and defense industry have been able to translate war and rising oil prices into bigger paychecks, according to a recent study.

Since the war on terror began, CEOs of the top 34 defense contractors have seen pay levels that are double the amounts they received during the four years leading up to the 9/11 attacks, according to the report from the Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy.

Rising oil prices have translated into a 50 percent increase in pay for chief executive officers at the nation's top 15 oil companies since 2004.

Last year, defense industry CEOs walked off with 44 times more pay than military generals with 20 years experience and 308 times more than Army privates, the study showed.


more...
http://money.cnn.com/2006/08/31/news/ceo_pay.reut/index.htm?section=money_latest

[cyberpj]

1. IRAQ FOR SALE - info and clip:

Acclaimed director Robert Greenwald (Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, Outfoxed, and Uncovered) takes you inside the lives of soldiers, truck drivers, widows and children who have been changed forever as a result of profiteering in the reconstruction of Iraq. Iraq for Sale uncovers the connections between private corporations making a killing in Iraq and the decision makers who allow them to do so.

info and clip:
http://iraqforsale.org /

[cyberpj]

2. Meanwhile.......

Real Wages Fail to Match a Rise in Productivity
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE and DAVID LEONHARDT
Published: August 28, 2006

Wages and salaries now make up the lowest share of the nation’s economy since the U.S. began recording the data in 1947.

The median hourly wage for American workers has declined 2 percent since 2003, after factoring in inflation. The drop has been especially notable, economists say, because productivity — the amount that an average worker produces in an hour and the basic wellspring of a nation’s living standards — has risen steadily over the same period.

As a result, wages and salaries now make up the lowest share of the nation’s gross domestic product since the government began recording the data in 1947, while corporate profits have climbed to their highest share since the 1960’s. UBS, the investment bank, recently described the current period as “the golden era of profitability.”

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0828-02.htm


Americans Without Health Benefits May Have Set Record in 2005
By Matthew Benjamin and Kerry Young

Aug. 29 (Bloomberg) -- The number of Americans without health insurance probably rose to a record in 2005 as medical costs increased three times as fast as wages, according to forecasts for a Census Bureau report today.

The total has climbed every year since President George W. Bush took office, a point Democrats are likely to seize on in this year's congressional election. In February Bush called the 45.8 million who didn't have insurance in 2004 ``unacceptable in our country.'' Emory University Professor Ken Thorpe in Atlanta says Bush has done little to help these people.

``We've had absolutely no federal effort or interest in insuring the uninsured since 2000,'' said Thorpe, who was deputy assistant secretary for policy at the Department of Health and Human Services from 1993 to 1995. ``This has not been a priority of the Bush administration.''

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=a8eJudCM7WkQ&refer=home