In Executive Pay, a Rich Game of Thrones

[MindMover]

IS any C.E.O. worth $1 million a day?

That’s roughly $42,000 an hour. Or $700 a minute. Or $12 a second.

Think of it this way: In the time it took to read those words, you could’ve pocketed $100. Finish this article and — well, you do the math.

At Apple, the answer to that question is an emphatic yes, and then some. Not since Steve Jobs has a chief executive at Apple, or any other public American corporation, for that matter, been as richly rewarded in stock as Timothy D. Cook, who succeeded Mr. Jobs as chief executive last August, a few months before Mr. Jobs died.

Mr. Cook was paid a cash salary of roughly $900,000 in 2011. On its own, that would have been a ho-hum paycheck for a top American C.E.O. in recent years.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/08/business/in-chief-executives-pay-a-rich-game-of-thrones.html?_r=1&hp

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[twitcher]

1. Check the math

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/04/08/apple-ceos-earnings-the-new-york-times-gets-it-wrong/

Big bucks for sure, but not quite as big as the NY Times makes it sound.

[MindMover]

2. The math only gets worse, not better......

Last edited Mon Apr 9, 2012, 12:52 AM - Edit history (2)

This guy got Paid not earned......$13,698,630......every day of last year......that is $158.00 every second....

The Five BILLION Dollar Man: Hedge fund manager earns Wall Street's biggest ever payday

A hedge fund trader netted a record $5billion personally last year, the highest amount ever earned by an individual over a 12-month period.

John Paulson, 54, earned $4billion from investing in his own fund Paulson & Co and $1billion in pay alone.

His total earnings for last year are greater than the GDP of many small countries and top the $4billion he made in 2007 betting on the global financial meltdown.

Such Wall St largesse is likely to renew the row over corporate greed and comes at a time when the rest of America is still struggling with the worst downturn since the Great Depression.

Unemployment stands at 9%, one in 45 homes are being foreclosed and the economy is expected to grow just 3% this year.

Adding to the disgust will be the knowledge that part of Paulson’s money came from shorting, one of the practices which has been blamed for the collapse of the worldwide economy.

His enormous pay packet came after investments in commodities, shares, and U.S. Treasury bonds and was due the sheer scale of the money under his control.

His largest hedge fund, Advantage Plus, is worth $36billion and swelled by 17% last year whilst others saw gains of 11%.

These were responsible for $4billion of his pay.

Paulson also charged a 20% cut of all profits known as a ‘performance fee’ which added up to the remaining $1billion.

It is not thought he will be taking it all in cash terms and are ‘paper gains’, but the figures are still colossal.

Critics argued he was a ‘grasping monster’, a ruthless speculator making money out of other people’s misery, and that his investments helped precipitate the property crash.

The criticism grew when it last year emerged that Paulson - nicknamed ‘the undertaker’ - had helped controversial finance house Goldman Sachs design investments in mortgages for the low-paid that he personally believed were doomed to lose money.

Admirers counter that Paulson simply spots opportunities, and makes the most of them, for himself and his clients.

He famously made his motto: ‘If you watch the downside, the upside will take care of itself.’

Paulson grew up in New York City’s working-class borough of Queens, and aged six launched himself in business by splitting packets of sweets up and selling them individually at a profit.

He studied philosophy and creative writing at New York City university before going to Harvard Business School.

He worked for the Bear Stearns investment house before launching his own fund in 1994.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1351530/The-5BILLION-man-Hedge-fund-manager-earns-Wall-Streets-biggest-payday.html

[SharonAnn]

3. They don't "earn" the money. They get "paid" the money. Big difference!