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Should the government bailout for the financial industry include restrictions on executive pay?

Results so far:

Yes
84% 159 votes Total: 190 votes
No
16% 31 votes

Yes

by Dewy Morris

Created on: October 20, 2008

Excessive executive compensation is one of the main culprits that helped bring down the economy at large. The CEO and chairman of Lehman Brothers is a prime example of this abuse of public interest and fiduciary betrayal of the investors trust in terms of their shares in stocks. Mr. Richard Fuld took home $480 million dollars in compensation between the years 2000 until 2007 according to congressional hearings. Mr. Fuld sought approval from the compensation committee for 20 million dollars in special payments for three of the departing executives four days before filing bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers., the largest bankruptcy in US history. At this time on behalf of Lehman Brothers he sought bailout from the US government. When the public owns the company then salaries should be kept in check by an outside agency rather than the board of directors and its CEO's, a third party that has no interest in the potential earnings of the company for personal gain. When the public's interest is at stake then the risk is high. No one should be allowed to mishandle someone else's money in trust and be exempt from both private and public scrutiny. If the taxpayer is going to foot the bill then the salaries should be set to government caps because now the company no longer is held in the private sector and becomes the property of the people through government intervention. All assets both at home and abroad should be liquidated and distributed among the shareholders. The CEO's would forfeit their shares and would serve to recover loses and paid back to the general public shareholders.

If salaries aren't kept in check in regards to public trust and interest then that gives rise to "hyperinflation", another words an extorted value of the stock, commodity rather than the actual value, based on performance, determined by supply and demand. Hyperinflation, over compensation and overstated value along with low wages among the middle class is the bedrock of the overall meltdown in the housing and credit market which affects the economy in which our society depends on. We are a credit driven economy!

The government should not bail out the system, the system is bankrupt, and it's insolvent. Let the system go down the tubes and let the market correct itself. Once the market stabilizes through consumer confidence then the flow of money can once again flow freely, the channels become open through spending.

The government should take control of the banking system and take it out of the hands of private manipulation of the international banking cartel. The government can and has in the past done this very thing and as a result showed the world what free enterprise coupled with human potential and productivity can achieve. The government can and should for the sake of the nation along with its people operate on the basis of non profit. The supply of money can be issued on the basis of population and productivity of the people at low interest rates to allow the build up of the US Treasury.

Abraham Lincoln at the start of his presidency was faced with a situation very much like we face today. The country was on the very brink of war, it was in a depression and the US Treasury was bankrupt. Abraham Lincoln was a man of great character, integrity that loved his country. He stood in the pivotal point in history that would have either destroyed the whole nation or bring it out of poverty and despair through determination with resilient to the international baking cartel. He went to New York to borrow money to finance the war, the interest rates that the private bankers were going to charge him was between 26 and 30% this was outrageous to say the least. He came back with a mandate on his mind of winning the war between the very ones that funded the confederacy in hopes of dividing the country for their own private financial gain. He was the only president that took the US Constitution at its written word; the government shall have the sole right to print and coin money, and began issuing what was known then as the "greenback". He printed and pumped in $400 and something million dollars and financed the whole war interest free! After the Civil war the country became the most productive and prosperous nation on the planet. He saved the Union, the Nation, brought it out depression and poverty and paved the way to becoming the youngest superpower in the history of the world. From the end of the war to the financial crisis of 1907 the country grew so fast that it became the first industrialized nation on the planet. Abe Lincoln bridged the gap between poverty, instability and prosperity with the greenback.

Yes the executives pay should be regulated when it comes to public trust. On a private basis that is determined between the two parties involved. Remove the bedrock of hyperinflation along with the despots that control it and you have liberated the people from poverty and despair and empowered them with productivity coupled with their creativity to give birth and rise to a superpower beyond comprehension.

Can we do it again? Yes we can with a stroke of a pen and the collective voices of the people from around the globe the human spirit can revive and thrive with productivity through creativity. Open the mouth of the people and you can unshackle the chains of poverty and despair and rid the world of the despots of the money changers.

Learn more about this author, Dewy Morris.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

No

by Pamela Tremblay

Created on: October 01, 2008

In a culture where we measure our success against the success of our friends and neighbors, it's impossible not to compare our own income to the astronomical salaries of executives at AIG, Lehman Brothers, Wachovia, or Freddie Mac, just to name a few. In our minds, not only is their pay grossly inflated, but it is also outrageous that they were so richly compensated for running their respective organizations into the ground. Now they have the audacity to expect taxpayers pick up the tab.

Taxpayers can't be faulted for wanting some kind of justice. Frankly, the Wall Street suits that contributed to this mess should go to jail or be barred from the industry permanently. However, placing limitations on executive salaries is an ineffective and weak solution: expensive to monitor and impossible to enforce.

It may make us feel better to know Wall Street will be somehow punished for their bad deeds, but if anyone believes Congress can effectively control executive pay on a permanent, or even on a short-term basis, they are naive. Any Internal Revenue Service Agent can tell you determining the exact compensation of executives at America's largest companies is sometimes like trying to catch a greased pig.

Corporate America has spent a lot of cash and brainpower to create hefty compensation packages that make executives happy and avoid "taxable events." This is not to say the packages are illegal, but they are extremely complicated and take advantage of every loophole available. Rest assured they would employ the same creativity to avoid any limitations placed on them by the bailout legislation.

In order to implement a salary limitation, Congress must be prepared to police the industry on an intimate and very long-term basis. It may even be necessary to spend more taxpayers' money to create a new agency or beef up an existing agency. Whoever is charged with riding herd on the bailout participants has to be pretty powerful, or it will be a reprise of OFHEO's weak and under-funded supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. When the regulator is weaker than the regulated entity, it is a waste of taxpayer money, as well.

Some bailout participants may agree to operate under salary caps now, but there would be nothing to stop them from awarding bonuses or much larger salaries in the future after the crisis is over and no one is looking.

It is time for executive salaries to match the performance of their companies. It needs to start with the hiring process, and company directors should ensure employment contracts are written to address company performance in relation to compensation. Stockholders need to hold the directors' feet to the fire and make sure bad management doesn't walk away with rich severance packages.

Expecting government to further regulate corporate compensation packages is unrealistic. It's like slapping a Disney band-aid on a bullet hole and telling taxpayers that should make it better. It may make us feel better briefly, but in the end it is only distracting, voo-doo medicine that has no effect on the bigger problem.

Learn more about this author, Pamela Tremblay.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.


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