Can Europe Pop the U.S. CEO Pay Bubble?

[marmar]

via CommonDreams:



Published on Thursday, September 3, 2009 by YES! Magazine

Can Europe Pop the U.S. CEO Pay Bubble?
by Sarah Anderson


Since the eruption of the economic crisis last fall, armies of corporate lobbyists have been battling to keep even modest changes in executive compensation rules off the legislative table. Their most common argument: pay restrictions will drive "top talent" out of U.S. firms and into the welcoming arms of higher-paying European companies.

This argument has always been laughable. Was it really a résumé-builder to lose trillions of dollars in financial wealth and drive the global economy off a cliff? Is that what makes one a hot commodity in the global labor pool? Were European companies, while shedding thousands of their own employees, really aggressively recruiting on Wall Street?

Ludicrous as they might sound, the financial industry's professed fears about losing their best and brightest seem to have had an impact in Washington. Whether policymakers actually believe these claims or not, they have failed so far to pass meaningful restrictions on executive compensation. Nearly a year into the economic crisis, the CEO pay bubble that was a key cause of the meltdown remains un-popped.

The executive pay "restrictions" put in place since last September affect only a small number of executives of firms that have collected funds from one of the federal government's bailout initiatives, the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. And these pay rules contain gaping loopholes that have left the practice of mammoth executive pay packages largely intact. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/09/03-1

[Donnachaidh]

1. we can hope -- it's obvious no one in our government has a problem with CEO's making obscene wages

IIRC, just read something in the last few days about TARP CEO's making huge amounts. So much for that *oversight* and *transparency* and *change*...... :eyes: