Bailing Out the Losers
(Economy)
We should always be glad to help the less fortunate among us. Such as the poor souls at mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, and failing insurance giant AIG.
Bailing out these entities and taking on the bad mortgage debt assembled by such companies’ top managers are a big part of a Treasry/Fed plan that supposedly will cost U.S. taxpayers an estimated $700 billion – but I will bet you $10 right now that the cost passes $1 trillion in the blink of an eye.
Since money the government takes from me at tax time is going to prop up the horrible management decisions these companies have been making, I thought I’d take a peek at the top managers themselves.
Here’s a little of what I found:
⇒ Freddie Mac Chairman and CEO Dick Syron was paid salary, stock, options and a bonus totaling almost $20 million in 2007 – the same year Freddie Mac’s stock lost half of its value.
⇒ Fannie Mae CEO Daniel Mudd was paid $13.4 million in salary, “incentive” payments, stocks and options in 2007, and made another $5.4 million from stock awards that vested last year – the same year Fannie Mae shares lost 33% of their value as the company posted a loss of more than $2 billion.
⇒ Newly named American International Group CEO Robert Willumstad was promised a salary “target” cash bonus and long-term incentive pay totaling $22 million, plus he received a $24.5 million stock award earlier this summer.
Now it turns out that Syron and Mudd together expect to split $24 million in an “exit package” as the government – public servants working for you and me – move to take over Fannie and Freddie’s operations.
And Willumstad is hoping for $7 million in cash in return for going away and letting some assistant Treasury dweeb step in.
Pardon me for being crude, but euphemisms temporarily escape me. Suffice it to say that this is a big honkin’ load of bullshit.
If you and I are being saddled with all the crappy loans these idiots bought, without even conducting a minimum of due diligence (and be assured, we are being saddled with them), then why should we reward them in any way whatsoever for cleaning up their mess?
In the fantasy universe where I am king of the world, Willumstad gets a big zero, and can live off of his stock award, and the only reason he fares that well is that he was only steering AIG for eight weeks before it crashed.
Syron and Mudd, however, should owe us $24 million – apiece – after their pathetic attempt at playing major corporate manager.
And each director sitting on each of these sad corporate entities’ boards owes $10 million in cash to the government bail-out fund right now, a small price to pay for the criminal negligence shown in failing to supervise the nearly comedic business decisions their chief executives oversaw.
This certainly is a fitting capper to the rule of the party of less taxes, less government, more free market and the galaxy’s biggest, fattest Visa account.
→ B.Dunn, Sep 20, 2008, 04 01 pm
Good points, all. I bet more than 90% of everyone would be with you on all of them, too.
Now, can you please tell me why it is that none of our elected officials, in either party, can seem to manage to understand any of those points?
— jdallen Sep 28, 10:14 am #
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How very true your points are. It is ridiculous that they make this much money. And it is ridiculous Lance Berkman makes millions of dollars a year and it is difficult for me to afford to take my family to a baseball game. And it is ridiculous that Bruce Spingsteen makes millions of dollars via concerts and I would have to pay several hundred dollars to take my family to see him.
All a terribly waste.
— Marcus Canfo Nov 4, 12:53 pm #
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