Molly Ivins: Greeed (not a typo) and Grasso

[Dudley_DUright]

Life rolls on in George W. Bush's America, forcing us to invent a new word -- greeed, with three E's in the middle -- to cover cases like that of Richard A. Grasso, who recently resigned as chairman and CEO of the New York Stock Exchange.

Grasso has been doing such a swell job of policing corporate irregularities -- surely you've noticed -- that his board members felt he should be rewarded with a pay package worth $139.5 million. But, hey, he was willing to kick back $8 mil. What a guy.

Now, those sophisticated folks at The Wall Street Journal keep pointing out that Grasso did nothing wrong -- he merely accepted a pay package that was foisted upon him by a board of directors who happened to be handpicked by Grasso, who were close friends of his and who kept their decisions secret. How could there be anything wrong with that? What a splendid example of open, transparent corporate governance and independent directors.

If you look around you on almost any level, you'll notice that people who have special advantages almost always manage to convince themselves that they are entitled to those advantages. This defensive reaction includes such immortal excuses as, "But ... we've always done it this way," or, "We got here first," or, "This is the way my daddy did it."

more...

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=15700

[opihimoimoi]

1. Its OBSCENE

He worth that much MORE Than Bush??

It should be we pay our Presidents 140 mil and maybe we'd get better leaders.

This guy we got now sucks.

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. Grasso's predicament reminds me of the game of musical chairs.

No one would have noticed this obscene pay-off five years ago when times were good. But once the music stopped, Grasso stood out like a sore thumb.