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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPaying CEOs Top Dollar for Poor Performance
http://billmoyers.com/2013/08/28/paying-ceos-top-dollar-for-poor-performance/One of the great American delusions is meritocracy the idea that everyone competes on an even playing field, and then gets what they deserve. In a meritocratic society, we would expect top-earning chief executives to represent the best and the brightest. Or, at the very least, to be good at their jobs.
Consider the case of Richard Fuld, who ran Lehman Brothers from 1994 until 2008. Fuld made the list of Americas twenty-five highest-paid executives for eight years in a row, until the bank collapsed under a slew of bad investments. The Lehman bust was the largest bankruptcy in the nations history and a defining event in the financial crisis. For his leadership in the eight years prior to the collapse, while the firm was making bad bets and covering them up with accounting tricks, Fuld raked in more than $466 million.
So many of the CEOs that wound up leading our economy to disaster showed up on the list [of Americas twenty-five highest-paid CEOs] both before and after the financial crisis, said Sarah Anderson, one of the reports authors and the director of the Global Economy Project at IPS. While the financial sector is heavily represented in the list of poorly performing, highly paid executives, women are noticeably absent. In two decades, only four broke into the top twenty-five.
More than a fifth of the highest-paid executives ran firms that either received taxpayer money or collapsed during the financial crisis. Another 14 percent of all top earners ultimately lost their jobs because they were fired, forced to retire, or their company went bankrupt. Then these CEOs walked away with severance packages averaging $47.7 million. The average worker is very lucky to get a small severance. To see that the average golden parachute was worth 48 million [dollars] reinforces the belief that there is no accountability here, Anderson said.
Consider the case of Richard Fuld, who ran Lehman Brothers from 1994 until 2008. Fuld made the list of Americas twenty-five highest-paid executives for eight years in a row, until the bank collapsed under a slew of bad investments. The Lehman bust was the largest bankruptcy in the nations history and a defining event in the financial crisis. For his leadership in the eight years prior to the collapse, while the firm was making bad bets and covering them up with accounting tricks, Fuld raked in more than $466 million.
So many of the CEOs that wound up leading our economy to disaster showed up on the list [of Americas twenty-five highest-paid CEOs] both before and after the financial crisis, said Sarah Anderson, one of the reports authors and the director of the Global Economy Project at IPS. While the financial sector is heavily represented in the list of poorly performing, highly paid executives, women are noticeably absent. In two decades, only four broke into the top twenty-five.
More than a fifth of the highest-paid executives ran firms that either received taxpayer money or collapsed during the financial crisis. Another 14 percent of all top earners ultimately lost their jobs because they were fired, forced to retire, or their company went bankrupt. Then these CEOs walked away with severance packages averaging $47.7 million. The average worker is very lucky to get a small severance. To see that the average golden parachute was worth 48 million [dollars] reinforces the belief that there is no accountability here, Anderson said.
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Paying CEOs Top Dollar for Poor Performance (Original Post)
Scuba
Aug 2013
OP
I wonder how many would be in the 'busted' category if they weren't all above the law?
phantom power
Aug 2013
#4
Xipe Totec
(43,889 posts)1. They were all top performers
If one defines performance as the ability to draw a huge paycheck.
louis-t
(23,288 posts)2. One of my favorite responses to any idiot who seeks to justify
CEO salaries is: "So, someone who makes a million a year works 10 times as hard as someone who makes 100,000?" Only the stupidest say 'yes' and then they quickly change the subject.
Rex
(65,616 posts)3. Crime pays.
nt.
phantom power
(25,966 posts)4. I wonder how many would be in the 'busted' category if they weren't all above the law?