Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Dear wanks: Tell me about that "free market" thing again.


It's hilarious to hear dyed-in-the-wool conservatives whinge on and on about "the welfare state" and personal responsibility and accountability and the joy of unfettered competition when you have to put up with crap like this:

Stan O'Neal got the fifth-largest exit-pay package for a U.S. executive when he left Merrill Lynch & Co. with $161.5 million in securities and retirement benefits, according to research group Corporate Library.

And what exactly did Mr. O'Neal do to deserve that kind of reward? Oh ... right:

Merrill Lynch, the world's largest brokerage firm, ousted O'Neal as chief executive after reporting a $2.24 billion loss on Oct. 24, six times its forecast and the biggest quarterly loss in the company's 93-year history.

Gotcha. And, hey, what about Charles Prince?

Charles "Chuck" Prince, the deposed head of Citigroup, is in line to walk away from the Wall Street giant with a total pay, perks and shares payout worth just under $100 million, it has emerged.

The payout for Mr Prince, who stays on as a consultant until the end of the year, include a pro-rata cash "incentive award" currently estimated to be worth $12 million.

It also includes $10,716,469 in restricted share awards and $16,046,703 in stock options that will automatically vest at his departure.

And Mr. Prince's stellar accomplishments while at the helm? Behold:

Merrill wrote down $7.9 billion but said last night that its exposure had reached $27.2 billion.

But never forget -- raising the minimum wage would be very bad for the economy. Disastrously-bad ex-CEOs with multi-million dollar severance packages say so.

2 comments:

M@ said...

Hey, lay off. Those poor guys will soon join the 45 million Americans without employer-sponsored health care.

What? They won't?

Unknown said...

"People who go broke in a big way never miss any meals. It is the poor jerk who is shy a half slug who must tighten his belt."

Ah, the ever-quotable if politically questionable Mr. Heinlein. Very apropos in this case.