What is Digg?Sponsored by Dragon Age: Origins
See the new YouTube feature trailer for Dragon Age: Origins view!
youtube.com/DragonAge - EA presents BioWare's new dark fantasy epic Dragon Age: Origins. '9/10' from Game Informer.
141 Comments
- bombmaster2, on 02/11/2009, -2/+76It is shameful that 4 of the execs got $30 million dollar bonuses each when the company lost $20 billion that year.
- muckemuck, on 02/12/2009, -0/+68http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/787-Il ...
"During The Panic of 1873 bankers were literally dragged out of their offices by angry mobs and hanged on the spot. In America."
.... so the bankers today are lucky. - northwatuppa, on 02/11/2009, -2/+66This arrogance and greed rises to the level of criminality, maybe criminal insanity. The size of these bonuses go way beyond anything related to true financial need or staff retention.
- meruru, on 02/12/2009, -7/+47You Don't Need To Capitalize Every Word In Your Descriptions
- flbotavara, on 02/12/2009, -0/+34Add to the insult company execs refuse the idea of a $500,000 salary caps for those getting the bailout funds -- because for them, execs pays should be "according to performance". Sooooo.... losing $20b is "performance" hence the $30m bonus?
- bwhite, on 02/12/2009, -1/+28While hanging may not be acceptable today, we can at least de-pants them in public.
- diggcensors, on 02/12/2009, -1/+25Sounds like time for a good ole' populist lynch mob. Who's with me?
- Cyberdactyl, on 02/12/2009, -2/+25"In 2000, CEOs of the largest U.S. public companies received 531 times more compensation than their average employee.
French CEOs received 16 times more; in Japan they received 10 times more."
http://www.harrt.ucla.edu/publications/workingpape ...
I've never understood why legislation can not be passed like they have in Japan. If a CEO wants to pull down a half a billion, by God, run the company well enough to provide for everyone in the corporation.
DON'T rip off the shareholders like a god damn thief. - UselessTrivia, on 02/12/2009, -1/+22Jon Stewart said it best:
Executive: "We have to pay our top people if we want to hang onto them"
Jon Stewart: "You don't have top people!" - Bloodwine, on 02/12/2009, -0/+19If today's wealthy elite and execs keep up with the, "let them eat cake", mentality, I wonder if we'll ever see angry mobs these days, whether it be the U.S. or another industrialized nation in a big slump.
- diggcensors, on 02/12/2009, -2/+21These people belong in jail. Why don't the stockholders realize they are being robbed blind?
- MonkeyOverlord, on 02/12/2009, -3/+20I have a modest proposal: free all of the non-violent drug offenders from federal prison, then arrest everyone from these CEOs, to Tom Daschle and Tim Geithner (for tax evasion). Let's make it bipartisan and not leave anyone out. The common man would be in prison or sued into oblivion for behaving like them. That's the main reason why I always said Clinton should have been removed from office. Any of us here commit perjury, even in a "***** federal lawsuit," and we'd still end up in prison with a felony on our record.
In fact, I say it's time we codified noblesse oblige into our laws ( http://www.codemonkeyramblings.com/2008/12/should- ... ) - treehugger87, on 02/12/2009, -2/+17They would have lost double, but not because they were unable to manage the companies. Top CEOs are top CEOs because of their political and Wall Street connections. Without these guys in power at the top, banks would have to actually created products that people want and make a good faith effort to sell those products. With them, all we get is Enron over and over and over again.
- treehugger87, on 02/12/2009, -0/+15Beyond shameful, it should be criminal!
- IphtashuFitz, on 02/12/2009, -0/+14You know, I've been wondering if us lowly citizens might be able to send these bankers another type of message to let them know just how fed up we are. Imagine if tens or hundreds of thousands of Bank of America customers all banded together and agreed to close their BoA accounts on the same day and then actually did that. About the only reason I still use BoA is because I used to be a Bank of Boston customer which was acquired by Fleet Bank which was acquired by BoA, and also the convenience of all their ATM's, etc. There are a number of local/regional banks that I'm sure would love to have me as a customer, and I'd gladly transfer all my funds to them and settle for having fewer fee-free ATM's to use. If I did this just as myself the bank wouldn't care at all. But if they had literally thousands of people all do it on the same day and tell them it's precisely because of the behavior of their executives, then it might just send a bit of a message to them.
To paraphrase Arlo Guthrie:
And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day,I said
fifty people a day walking in and closing their BoA accounts and
walking out. And friends they may thinks it's a movement. - Kallius, on 02/12/2009, -0/+13Yes, such actions of the past would make these parasites think twice about their actions.
- wjlaw100, on 02/12/2009, -0/+13Any arguments indicating that "it did not come the taxpayers money" are fraudulent. If a entity receives money from the taxpayers, that means they were about to "cease to exist". All monies in an institution are in the same pool. there is no different between the green of the money made by the company or given by the taxpayer. If the bail out did not happen, there would be no money for the bonus. Make them all give it back.
- treehugger87, on 02/12/2009, -0/+12and my sword
- Crazyredivan, on 02/12/2009, -2/+14I doubt that we will ever see that level of passion in America again.
- tgc1, on 02/12/2009, -0/+12You have my Axe.
- stonewall123, on 02/12/2009, -0/+11"Nearly 700 employees received a bonus of at least $1 million"...
"bonuses came just days after Bank of America received an additional $20 billion from the government that it said it needed to help offset the losses it was absorbing from the Merrill acquisition. "...
"$3.6 billion in bonuses amid bailout"...
You were saying 3 cents out of $20? try 3.6 billion in bonuses / 20 billion additional funds = 18% - BlatheringIdiot, on 02/12/2009, -0/+10Merrill Lynch Mob ?
- davebg8r, on 02/12/2009, -0/+10No we're not. You have to start somewhere.
- moses141, on 02/12/2009, -0/+10It's important to note that besides execs, 700 other people received more than $1M each. Do these guys really deserve $1M when their companies are bleeding to death?
This is why Geithner/Obama's "executive" salary cap is a joke. They'll just shift the bonuses down the chain, and provide an easy loophole. - skintigh, on 02/12/2009, -2/+12It all makes sense when you step back and look at it. Execs get HUGE bonuses for making short-term gains, so they take the biggest risks possible in order to maximize short-term gain, damn the consequences.
Even if it's obvious to everyone in the board room that these huge risks will lead to the downfall of the company in 3-5 years and result in massive layoffs and possibly crippling the economy, if they all stand to make half a billion dollars before then nobody has a problem with the risks.
Would you?
Anyway, now they are licking up the crumbs before sailing off into the sunset. - Physicsmazz, on 02/12/2009, -0/+9Thank you stonewall...Apparently Ac didn't read the article or the title!!!
- vbullinger, on 02/12/2009, -3/+12While I don't agree with the idea of hanging them, as I know you're not suggesting, I will commend the people of the day for really questioning our banking system - as people really don't do today.
Booms and busts are not accidental: they're created in order to generate a reaction. The reaction - these days it's stimulus packages and bailouts - is wanted from the get-go. They create a panic in order to generate the reaction that we would have never accepted otherwise. Create the problem, get the reaction that makes your original "solution" desirable: "problem, reaction, solution." Back in the day, they generated the panic on purpose and were punished. Today, they generate the panic and are given cabinet positions. - Cyberdactyl, on 02/12/2009, -2/+10Why do they give themselves these insane packages?
The answer is much more simple than one might think.
BECAUSE THE CAN. - homercles337, on 02/12/2009, -0/+8and my bow...
- tgc1, on 02/12/2009, -0/+8No, I think hanging is still acceptable when you're talking about these kinds of people.
- Bloodwine, on 02/12/2009, -0/+8Executive pay started to get really out-of-whack in the 1990's.
The problem is most people were distracted with their debt-powered-lifestyles that they didn't really care much about what happened outside their little worlds. Now that the pain train is running full steam ahead and so many people are upside-down in debt, they aren't distracted anymore and are paying more attention.
Hard to keep the masses distracted when they are suddenly very concerned about pinching pennies. A lot of regular Americans did it to themselves, but that doesn't mean they are going to sit around and tolerate others to make millions for making mistakes. Now that the dust is settling, more people are aware that they are on the "have not" side of the "haves vs. have nots" - cyberprunes, on 02/12/2009, -0/+8It does not make sense when you use US Taxpayer money to provide bonuses.
- TheVirus, on 02/12/2009, -1/+9Title case is not used in descriptions.
- banderwocky, on 02/12/2009, -0/+8Let em have it. Both barrels.
- sponeil, on 02/12/2009, -1/+8The 20 billion loss came out of THEIR money. The 30 million came out of OUR money. You can't really compare the two like that.
- tuseau, on 02/12/2009, -0/+7Lock em up and throw away the key.
- Tenareth, on 02/12/2009, -0/+7"Any bailout is a criminal act!"
Fixed it for you. - Barbarino, on 02/12/2009, -1/+8hang em high.....
- diggcensors, on 02/12/2009, -3/+9Lynch Mob!!!! This is exactly what capitalism needs.
- lhbaker, on 02/12/2009, -0/+6Umm. Maybe you didn't read past the first few paragraphs?
FTA: Both Merrill and Bank of America could face charges of securities fraud in New York as the attorney general’s office investigation unfolds - rmxz, on 02/12/2009, -0/+6Everyone on Digg seems to be blaming the CEOs and Management. Doesn't more of the blame belong to the Compensation Committee's on the company's Boards of Directors - who's job it is to determine the bonuses given to Execs?
Seems to me the guiltiest parties are
1) the members of the compensation committees for these companies,
2) the board members who chose who goes on the compensation committees, and
3) the people who chose those board members ( remind me who votes for board members:-) )
The CEOs are pretty much guilty of saying yes when their boss (yes, CEOs have bosses) asks them "would you please accept this billion dollar bonus".
IMHO the real crime is offering that bonus in the first place. - J0hnnyBlaze, on 02/12/2009, -1/+7bunch of ***** theives running the banks...no wonder they're all collapsing.
in what kind of world can you recieve a 20billion bailout from the government intended to help prevent the failure of our economy, and turn around and use it for ***** bonuses.
and the worst part is they're not going to be able to prosecute anyone. Ultimately it was at Merill's discretion to award bonuses, and they have an arguable enough excuse with their aquisition that even though it was unethical, I'm fairly confident that they'll find a way to keep the money and avoid criminal charges. I hope I'm wrong. Maybe they'll get them with the avoiding transparency. - yerdaddy, on 02/12/2009, -0/+6If you buy stock you're automatically forfeiting your right to honest earnings. The whole system is well designed for speculation removed from actual company performance. Hell there are even stocks that exist just for stock's sake. If you want to Invest start a company. If you don't want to invest go to work for someone else's comapany.
- empraptor, on 02/12/2009, -2/+8"modern day McCarthyism"
criminal prosecution for exaggerated association to a political faction?
I'm not seeing it. - andyb747, on 02/12/2009, -2/+7it is obvious that corporations run the U.S. and not government
- mithrasinvictus, on 02/12/2009, -1/+6paulson is a liberal in your alternate reality?
- r00fus, on 02/12/2009, -1/+6yeah, it's not like they don't deserve it.
Note: the truly deserving of the lynch mob are the politicians who rolled back regulations (Gramm-Leach-Bliley: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gramm-Leach-Bliley_Ac ... and profited from the results. - pocodiablo1, on 02/12/2009, -0/+5Typically a bonus structure is tied to performance. Ask them to support their claims with hard figures based on company performance and nail them whey they fudge the numbers.
- treehugger87, on 02/12/2009, -0/+5The fact that the bonuses came from the bailout money is exactly the point. I didn't pay my share of the bailed so far (about $2,000 for every taxpayer in the country) so some already rich ***** could get even richer. That money was supposed to get banks to begin lending again. And yes, if they used MY MONEY to give some rich ***** a gas card or travel credit I'm pissed about that too.
-
Show 51 - 100 of 145 discussions
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is