“Sen. Barack Obama was the primary sponsor of the say-on-pay bill, which would give shareholders a vote on top executives’ compensation. President Barack Obama will likely sign it in to law,” Matthew Kirdahy reports for Forbes.
“Giving shareholders in public companies a non-binding vote on top bosses’ pay is not only broadly endorsed by Democrats, it has gained bipartisan support in the wake of the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street,” Kirdahy reports. “Say-on-pay is being tipped as legislation for the first 100 days of the Obama administration.”
“U.S. shareholders now only have a voice on the compensation of chief executives if the board of directors choose to put it to a ballot during proxy season. Formally, such a vote is a shareholder advisory vote. It’s non-binding and does no more, beyond potential public embarrassment, than give a board the option to reconsider a pay package already approved. Directors aren’t obliged to change a cent, regardless of the outcome of the shareholder vote,” Kirdahy reports.
“RiskMetrics Group, a research and management consulting firm, found 74 companies, including General Electric, Valero Energy and Apple, that had a say-on-pay vote this year, though in most cases, shareholders had to have held at least $2,000 worth of stock in their company for at least a year to be eligible to vote. Only 10 of the votes approved the pay deals on offer (many were proposed by activist shareholders such as the AFL-CIO and the AFSCME). The overall average level of support was 43.1%, Risk Metrics says,” Kirdahy reports.
“Patrick McGurn, special council for RiskMetrics, says more and more companies are likely to accept say-on-pay votes in 2009 to get ahead of what they believe will be an inevitable legal requirement by 2010,” Kirdahy reports. McGurn expects legislation to be passed in the first quarter of 2009, which would be rapid progress for a governance measure first introduced into Congress in March 2007 by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.). The House passed the bill 269 to 132 the following April. Sen. Obama then sponsored it in the Senate, where it is now with the banking committee.”
Full article here.
Taxpayers are now on the hook for as much as $200 billion to rescue Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and if you want to know why, look no further than the rapid response to this bailout from House baron Barney Frank. Asked about Treasury’s modest bailout condition that the companies reduce the size of their high-risk mortgage-backed securities (MBS) portfolios starting in 2010, Mr. Frank was quoted on Monday as saying, “Good luck on that,” and that it would never happen.
There you have the Fannie Mae problem in profile. Mr. Frank wants you to pick up the tab for its failures, while he still vows to block a reform that might prevent the same disaster from happening again.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122091796187012529.html?
“Frank and those members of his committee who chose to ignore the several warnings should be impeached. Had this been done in the private sector, those ignoring the warnings would have at the very least, been summarily fired.”
Tampa Tribune: http://tinyurl.com/6a2j77
Apple’s CEO gets paid $1 per year. I vote that we cap it at twice that amount!
And while we’re at it, perhaps it’s time to re-open investigations on how Barney Frank has molested underage boys…
What a great guy. He has almost single handedly destroyed the US economy.
Lynch mob, anyone?
Barnie Frank, Herb Moses, Chris Dodd, & Franklin Raines are PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE for the prime-mortgage debacle…
They forced lenders to make loans to people that couldn’t / wouldn’t pay them back while raping the ‘public’ institutions as their own personal piggy banks, and getting Congress to force the taxpayers (you & me) to pay for their coke & whores.
Welcome to the new USSA.
Impeach lisping congressman, we just re-elected Frank. Overall, we like his performance record. Not perfect, but progressive. Mostly.
Now, about that super-annuated wanna-be from the other side of the aisle, should we have dumped him during the Keating screw-up? Yeah, he was at the forefront of that disaster. And he still nearly got elected as the 44th president of the US. Frank did not CAUSE the problem you are talking about, McCain DID help cause the Keating crash.
I’m not happy with Pelosi, either … too soft on the Administration is only one of my critiques. But … I don’t live in California. There are a lot of people in Washington who need the Rod of Reality stuffed where the sun don’t shine, on both sides of the aisle, but this is NOT the forum to discuss such matters. It is over. Let it pass.
dammit…
I meant *sub-prime* mortgage debacle…
Nutcracker, the protections stripped from the law-books so that this might happen were taken while both houses were dominated by Republicans. Given that, how could all the Democrats in both houses have forced such bills through either house? And, isn’t “less government” the mantra of the Republican party?
It was not the politicians, but GREED, “forcing” lenders of dubious ethics and morals to lend too much to people with too little, then sell those mortgages to even greedier people who would raise the rates to impossible levels.
On Topic: Apple’s CEO has certainly been agreeable about his wage. Many of the C-class officers I’ve worked for in the past have brought down salaries in excess of 100 times my own – and bonuses above even that level – for efforts even I could see the flaws in.
Really??
Let it pass? That’s the same as saying ‘ignore it’… or, ‘don’t hold anyone accountable for their actions’… that’s bullshit.
Public servants are responsible to… wait for it… the public. If those bastards abuse their positions, then WE, the public, have the responsibility to hold them accountable for their abuses. If you want to turn a blind eye to Barney’s ‘proclivities’ and excesses, then don’t bitch when you get gang-raped by your local tyrant / despot. You bring it on yourself.
And don’t say you haven’t been warned.
MaWo: ‘question’. As in, ‘Authority’.
Leave it to the ‘tards of The People’s Republic of Taxachusetts to re-elect that criminal doughboy pansy Frank.
Did you know that Barney Frank really, really loves “mandates.”
For the ‘chusetts ‘tards: Mandates. Man dates. Get it?
The total realistic exposure in the US with regards to the sub-prime mortgage crisis is around $150 billion.
The total value of the global bailout of the financial industry is now well over $1.4 trillion.
If you want to know why, the answer is unregulated derivatives like credit default swaps.
And if you want to know why CDSs, CDOs and other things are unregulated, you need to speak to Phil Gramm; Mr. Gramm was instrumental in either deregulating or maintaining deregulation many aspects of the financial services industry.
Mr. Gramm is a vice-chairman of UBS Investment Bank and his wife was a board director with Enron.
Obviously no link should be drawn between the way the Gramms now earn their money and Phil Gramms’ legislative priorities when he was a member of the Senate.
Wise Ass…
No, I don’t get it.
Can you get Mark Foley to explain it to me?
Did Mark Foley get re-elected?
No. No, he did not.
Because he’s not from Taxachusetts.
“we just re-elected Frank.”
We? I never saw him on any ballot.
DLMeyer: “Now, about that super-annuated wanna-be from the other side of the aisle, should we have dumped him during the Keating screw-up? Yeah, he was at the forefront of that disaster. And he still nearly got elected as the 44th president of the US. Frank did not CAUSE the problem you are talking about, McCain DID help cause the Keating crash.”
I voted for McCain but he was hardly an exciting candidate. That said, he had zilch to do with Keating, he was completely exonerated. He made the mistake of sitting in on meetings by people who were responsible. He’s guilty of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Barny Frank was directly responsible because he promoted the loans which caused the melt-down.
“but this is NOT the forum to discuss such matters.”
Funny coming from you, and a bit late to put that at the end of your post after you discuss it. Hypocracy thy name is DLMeyer
“It is over. Let it pass.”
We’ll have to suffer through at least 4 if not 8 years of Obama and Democrats running Congress and the White House, so in that sense it is “over” but politics is hardly ever over in a Democracy. The debate is ongoing, as is the nature of a free society.
Barny Frank was directly responsible because he promoted the loans which caused the melt-down.
I love Republicans.
When they’re not in power, everything is the fault of the Democrats.
When they’re in power, everything is still the fault of the Democrats.
Please go and look up the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000. Go and look at the timetable of how large elements of the legislation relating to the deregulation of Credit Default Swaps – the actual instrument that has caused most of the damage in recent months – was sneaked in without debate in either House or Senate and seemingly without Committee oversight. You should also note that this was done whilst Clinton was in his absolute ‘lame duck’ phase after the election of Bush 43, but before his inauguration so veto was not a likelihood.
Again, let’s be clear: total realistic exposure on sub-prime is around $150 billion, the total bailout caused by the CDS industry is at around $1.4 trillion and is increasing day-by-day.
Are you people so freakin’ stupid that you’re willing to buy “the Democrats are to blame” argument without even knowing the facts?
MCCFR: “Go and look at the timetable of how large elements of the legislation relating to the deregulation of Credit Default Swaps – the actual instrument that has caused most of the damage in recent months”
Are you arguing that Credit Default Swaps, and not bad loans made under duress by pressure from the government was the sole cause of this economic crisis?
What then if not bad loans made to people who could not pay, backed up by assurance or assumed assurance from the government guarantees made these Credit Default Swaps plummet in value rapidly?
Besides loans made to people without equity or without proper checks we had a compounded problem of new accounting rules which made asset values plunge faster than they would have if more natural market forces were in play, which forced companies to dump assets below their already reduced value.
This was an issue of government manipulation on both ends.
MCCFR: “Are you people so freakin’ stupid that you’re willing to buy “the Democrats are to blame” argument without even knowing the facts?”
I blame who I feel is responsible, and in this case it’s clearly Democrats.
Are you so freakin’ stupid that you’re willing to buy “the Republicans are to blame” argument without even knowing the facts?
MCCFR,
Ask yourself this simple question:
Do you think lenders would have ‘progressed’ to the point of letting people with bad credit histories, no verifiable income, and with as little as $500. down get 100% mortgages IF the implicit loan guarantee of Fannie and Freddie didn’t exist and if there was no ‘push’ from the government to make these loans?
I don’t think so…
Wow, twighlight
So now Democracy requires a healthy debate? Please remind me how strongly you condemned wingers who accused administration critics of being unpatriotic. How, in order to preserve our free society, you forcefully corrected those who would dismiss policy objections because they came from a “bush hater.”
Maybe you were fair and balanced in encouraging dissent and shunning those who would suppress the vigorous debate needed in a Democracy all these years…
But I think at least some of your Republican friends don’t really buy into this whole Democracy thing, despite waving that banner rather loudly.
Conservatives don’t buy into socialism period. Obama wants to spread the wealth. Obama is a socialist among many other bad things that will bubble up to the surface soon enough.
The Little Red Hen called all of her Democrat neighbors together and said, ‘If we plant this wheat, we shall have bread to eat. Who will help me plant it?’
‘Not I,’ said the cow.
‘Not I,’ said the duck.
‘Not I,’ said the pig.
‘Not I,’ said the goose.
‘Then I will do it by myself,’ said the little red hen, and so she did. The wheat grew very tall and ripened into golden grain.
‘Who will help me reap my wheat?’ asked the little red hen.
‘Not I,’ said the duck..
‘Out of my classification,’ said the pig.
‘I’d lose my seniority,’ said the cow.
‘I’d lose my unemployment compensation,’ said the goose.
‘Then I will do it by myself,’ s aid the little red hen, and so she did.
At last it came time to bake the bread.
‘Who will help me bake the bread?’ asked the little red hen.
‘That would be overtime for me,’ said the cow.
‘I’d lose my welfare benefits,’ said the duck.
‘I’m a dropout and never learned how,’ said the pig.
‘If I’m to be the only helper, that’s discrimination,’ said the goose.
‘Then I will do it by myself,’ said the little red hen.
She baked five loaves and held them up for all of her neighbors to see. They wanted some and, in fact, demanded a share. But the little red hen said, ‘No, I shall eat all five loaves.’
‘Excess profits!’ cried the cow. (Nancy Pelosi)
‘Capitalist leech!’ screamed the duck. (Barbara Boxer)
‘I demand equal rights!’ yelled the goose. (Jesse Jackson)
The pig just grunted in disdain. (Ted Kennedy)
And they all painted ‘Unfair!’ picket signs and marched around and around the little red hen, shouting obscenities.
Then the farmer (Obama) came. He said to the little red hen, ‘You must not be so greedy.’
‘But I earned the bread,’ said the little red hen.
‘Exactly,’ said Barack the farmer. ‘That is what makes our free enterprise system so wonderful. Anyone in the barnyard can earn as much as he wants. But under our modern government regulations, the productive workers must divide the fruits of their labor with those who are lazy and idle.’
And they all lived happily ever after, including the little red hen, who smiled and clucked, ‘I am grateful, for now I truly understand.’
But her neighbors became quite disappointed in her. She never again baked bread because she joined the ‘party’ and got her bread free. And all the Democrats smiled. ‘Fairness’ had been established.
txdoc: “Please remind me how strongly you condemned wingers who accused administration critics of being unpatriotic.”
I still consider many in the Democratic Party to be unpatriotic. I don’t care if you love or hate Bush, many republicans obviously don’t like him, look at his approval numbers. If it was only Democrats who didn’t like him he’d be close to 50%.
The Democratic Party choses illegal aliens over American citizens, advocates rights of terrorists over the safety of American citizens, tries to turn one group of Americans against another via class warfare, and racial politics. And advocates turning over whole sectors of the American economy to government control where they can decide large portions of our lives for us.
The Republican party fails in some of the same areas, I don’t see them trying to protect Americans from the crime and depressed wages caused by illegal immigration, no one seems to be standing up for the regular American worker there. Both parties suck. Democrats just suck here a little bit worse, and are hypocrites because the *claim* to be for the average worker, when they clearly are only interested in their own power.
Republicans also did nothing to reduce the power, the size and the scope of the Federal government when they were in power in the White House and Congress. Why do you think the American voters tossed them out of there? It wasn’t because everyone suddenly turned liberal.
Obama won the election because he was able to claim, unchallenged, that he was for tax cuts for more people than McCain was.
“But I think at least some of your Republican friends don’t really buy into this whole Democracy thing, despite waving that banner rather loudly.”
I don’t chose my friends based on their political party. There are Republicans and Democrats that I respect, and those that I do not.
If you want to talk about censorship and oppression, look no further than the Democrat Party’s “fairness doctrine” which is trying to shut down talk radio, which is the last arm of freedom of speech outside of the internet, since the Democratic Party owns most of the major media.
Individual initiative had died, but nobody noticed; perhaps no one cared…so long as there was free bread that ‘the rich’ were paying for.
EPILOGUE
Bill Clinton is getting $12 million for his memoirs.
Hillary got $8 million for hers.
That’s $20 million for the memories from two people, who for eight years, repeatedly testified, under oath, that they couldn’t remember anything.
@Hen
Brilliant!