Congress opens hearings on financial meltdown with focus on execs' compensation

Tuesday 07th October, 06:19 AM JST

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Sarge at 02:19 PM JST - 7th October

I see Wall Street took another big tumble today. I guess the $900 billion pork bill wasn't enough.
coulrophobic at 03:49 PM JST - 7th October

Franklin Raines accepted 90 million in bonuses from Fanny Mae.

And then he went to work for Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign.
smithinjapan at 04:06 PM JST - 7th October

sarge: "I guess the $900 billion pork bill wasn't enough."

The one your president desperately pushed for after bungling everything up... I know... it's disgusting! Imagine how easily all of this could have been avoided by him and his people in the White House. Or imagine, even if they didn't do anything to prevent it, as is the case now, and had not illegally invaded Iraq, they could easy have covered the $700 billion and tripled it and still not be in as much trouble as they are now. What a waste... and I'm glad you can admit it, sarge.
sdmsec at 04:24 PM JST - 7th October

How much more will this witch hunt cost us taxpayers?

My guess is that congress will spend millions identifying some sacrificial lambs. None of the blame will belong to the past several congressional terms or presidential terms, of course.

It's good to know that even in hard times our representatives can find a way to squander more money on frivolous finger-pointing (always away from themselves) without really addressing the underlying problems.
Nessie at 04:40 PM JST - 7th October

How much more will this witch hunt cost us taxpayers?

Not a witch hunt. A show trial.
Nessie at 04:43 PM JST - 7th October

Franklin Raines accepted 90 million in bonuses from Fanny Mae. And then he went to work for Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign.

Well one things for sure. He should definitely pick up the lunch tab.
coulrophobic at 05:27 PM JST - 7th October

Certain posters here really do frighten:

"The one your president desperately pushed for after bungling everything up... I know... it's disgusting! "

It is Congress which ultimately controls matters related to the budget.

Congress is not controlled by Bush's party.

Even former president Clinton is blaming the Democrats for most of this.
taniwha at 05:40 PM JST - 7th October

Yes, that must be right. Lets just say the first year of the first term of the Carter presidency was year zero.

Idiocy.
taniwha at 05:42 PM JST - 7th October

Or on the other hand, lets just say year zero began the first year of the Carter presidency.

Still idiocy.
tclh at 06:54 PM JST - 7th October

The ship is sunk and the captain wants a medal for reward?Completely illogical.
SezWho2 at 10:44 PM JST - 7th October

All I can say is that, if it were me and the bonuses and so on were in my contract and if they were standard in the industry, I'd take the money. I expect that I would have done my best to earn the compensation. I also suspect that I would not have acquiesced to illegal schemes without resigning (not necessarily blowing a whistle) or without being first fired.

I don't think the problem is executive compensation. Sure, it's out of scale, I think. But it's not the problem. Employees (including executives) should be paid what has been promised when they have made good faith efforts to do their jobs. A bigger problem is illegal activity or avoiding required oversight. A still bigger problem is our addiction to debt.
kjunluc2 at 01:55 AM JST - 8th October

Criminally outrageous! No way to describe it without profanity. There is not one member of the human race worth the money these pukes are getting.

We could use a Robespierre in this country. Not suggesting guillotine but lots of 6 X 8 cells would be great.
Good_Jorb at 03:14 AM JST - 8th October

Are you all telling me, if the shoe had been on the other foot, you wouldn't take that money?

There is a line between legitimately getting paid and prosituting your skills to the highest bidder. The executives were well past that line.

Accounting firms are one of the chief architects of compensation packages

The boards are the ones that OK compensation packages not the accounting firms.
HonestDictator at 05:40 AM JST - 8th October

I've always had an idea about this. In cases like that where the company is making a profit, why not take that CEO yearly bonus and spread it reasonably accross the board? Give the CEO a REASONABLE bonus or so in addition to his already 6-7 digit income, and the rest should be additional year end bonuses for the all the other company employees (no matter how low their position across) as well. That would be more encouraging for everyone to take their jobs seriously. Of course if they don't meet their job requirements then you should be more likely to let them go.

If I had the income like these guys have and was running a business I would prefer to spread the wealth to the entire company so to speak. This is the imaginary "Trickle down" effect that the Presidential administration has always been touting to reduce taxes for wealthy corporate maniacs, but they have barely an ounce of decency and thrive off of being arrogant and extravagant.
SezWho2 at 06:45 AM JST - 9th October

Good Jorb,

Yes, the boards are the ones that OK compensation packages for executives. However, board OK is often a rubber stamp and board members are likely to have similar packages from other firms.

Accounting firms and other companies with compensation consulting services design packages, but they design packages to please the executives at the companies whose books they audit. Independent accountants are not always independent (if ever). Audit dollars are huge and ancillary consulting cannot jeopardize it.