World Financial Crisis In Pictures
Category: Economy
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WaMu CEO: 3 weeks work, $18M
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Washington Mutual Chief Executive Alan Fishman could walk away with more than $18 million in salary, bonuses and severance after less than three weeks on the job, according to the terms of his employment agreement.
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And their stock plunge to “Penny Stock”
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Executives Made $3 Billion Before Crisis
Reading this article from Bloomberg you can see that it makes sense to cap the compensation of the people who work for banks whose bad loans get bought by the US taxpayer.
Wall Street‘s five biggest firms paid more than $3 billion in the last five years to their top executives, while they presided over the packaging and sale of loans that helped bring down the investment-banking system.
Merrill Lynch & Co. paid its chief executives the most, with Stanley O’Neal taking in $172 million from 2003 to 2007 and John Thain getting $86 million, including a signing bonus, after beginning work in December. The company agreed to be acquired by Bank of America Corp. for about $50 billion on Sept. 15. Bear Stearns Cos.‘s James “Jimmy” Cayne made $161 million before the company collapsed and was sold to JPMorgan Chase & Co. in June.
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America Viewed By Martin Varsavsky
I found this fascinating quote today by Martin Varsavsky:
American overspending is not only seen in the perennial budget and trade deficits but in the last years it reached historical heights with the absurd secondary mortgage market that is bringing the US banking system to its knees. Bear Stearns is gone, Lehman is bankrupt, AIG is shaking, Citigroup is 75% down, Merrill was just rescued by Bank of America and is also 50% down from its peak. USA is paying dearly for the combination of the desire of US elected politicians to please voters and overspend and the desire of the average American to live beyond his/her means and take unpayable mortgages and overspend.Is America´s success a thing of the past?, Sep 2008
You should read the whole article.