Regulating Bank Exec Compensation

[toasty]

I'm sure you've heard about the White House's plan to clamp down on what banks pay their executives. Generally speaking, I'm against the government telling private industry what they can and cannot pay people, but I am really torn on this. I guess I put things into a few different categories.

-As to companies that are privately held and have never asked for or received a government bailout, the gov't has no place to interfere.
-As to companies that have received a bailout and have not yet paid it all back, I'm generally OK with some reasonable level of oversight into compensation, in the interests of ensuring that our investment will be paid back.
-As to companies that we bailed out and they have paid everything back, with interest, I'm seriously torn. I'd ordinarily be against it, but when I see them engaging in the same behavior that got them -- and accordingly, us -- into this mess to begin with, it makes me pretty uncomfortable. We cannot get into a cycle where companies that are "too big to fail" make a ton of cash and distribute it to a handful of highly paid execs rather than capitalizing/stablizing the company, then get into trouble and the rest of us bear the brunt of that short-sightedness by bailing them out -- again. Privatizing the profits and socializing the losses is a pretty bitter pill to swallow, IMO, and that just can't be the way we do things around here.

Thoughts?

[floridaorange]

Re: Regulating Bank Exec Compensation

I'll have to get back to this thread, my (future) father-in-law has been the president of a smaller northern california bank most his life.

...I think his candor and insight would be of value, so I'm reserving my knee-jerk devil's advocate capitalist style opinion until I have this conversation with him . I think the topic certainly makes for an interesting debate.

[toasty]

Re: Regulating Bank Exec Compensation

In case anyone's not familiar with the story:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091022/bs_nm/us_financial_pay

[runningman]

Re: Regulating Bank Exec Compensation

well thank god they are doing this now that Goldman got theirs right??

I would have been for this if it included Goldman.

[floridaorange]

Re: Regulating Bank Exec Compensation

^LMFAO, you are almost indicating that you *might have taken some action toward solving a problem! Kudos!?

In the meantime, wtf is the point of coming online to post drudged up destructive headlines about nations problems?

You are not in any way part of any kind of solution unless you make reference to an action you are taking or others can take...

...in other words you are contributing to the problem.

Why?

[runningman]

Re: Regulating Bank Exec Compensation

It's official you have lost your mind Florida. Your mindset is the problem.

I have told you the action. To immediately get out of dollars and into gold. Don't try to label me as some Conservative. I hated Bush. But what is going on here is absolute madness. Obama lets goldman off the hook and lets them get $23 Billion in bonuses, then tells the rest to eat it.

So is it best to ignore the ugly headlines Florida? Should we just talk about puppy dogs and ice cream? It truly is turning into a Brave New World. Huxley was right. This site proves it.

Let me give you a hint about problm solving. You have to look deep at something to address the problem. You can't just put your head in the sand.

Let me give you some more advice for free. The FDIC is bankrupt.

[superdave]

Re: Regulating Bank Exec Compensation

The only situation the government should have oversight of pay is when a bank borrows money from the government and agrees when the loan is made to have compensation limits on its employees. Otherwise, the government shouldn't have any oversight at all.

Yes, we shouldn't be bailing out these companies. However, some of them should have been allowed to fail.

[FM]

Re: Regulating Bank Exec Compensation

Shouldn't be doing crap with them period.

I don't listen to Rush a lot, but did catch him the other day when he asked if this pay czar does cut all these execs pay, will it really change your life at all?

[yesme]

Re: Regulating Bank Exec Compensation

capitlism and our way of life was design for collapse, get used to it. the pay really means nothing, cause dollars are going to be worthless.

it is funny that people waste time on these subjects when the larger problem of what economic system do we switch to when our resources for running this materials market economy runs out is passed by the way side, like our planet shits out more resource's then we could ever consume.

[Michael^Heaven]

Re:

Wall Street, large banks, & corporations are pulling the govt's strings & not vice-versa. It's almost laughable to think otherwise.