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The faux tea party events Wednesday served many purposes for the wealthy Foxocrats who shamelessly promoted them, including distracting from the real perpetrators of waste: Greedy CEOs.
Even as the U.S. economy tanked, the median salary for CEOs of 200 large companies increased 4.5 percent to $1.08 million in 2008, according to a survey by The Wall Street Journal. Despite public outcry over private jets and other executive perks, companies kept plying executives with generous freebies. CEO perks went up, on average, 12.5 percent in 2008 to $336,248—or nine times the median salary of a full-time worker.
Corporations don’t only waste stockholders’ money. The CEOs of three banks that received money through the federal government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) remained on the list of 200 top-paid CEOs in 2008: Vikram Pandit, CEO of Citigroup; Kenneth Lewis, Bank of America CEO; and Richard D. Fairbank, CEO of Capital One Financial.
In fact, the top 10 TARP recipients collectively paid their CEOs a combined $242 million in total annual compensation. That averages nearly $25 million per CEO to run companies that might have gone bankrupt if not for billions of taxpayer dollars.
This is some of the data we’ve compiled for our 2009 AFL-CIO Executive PayWatch site, which we released this week. The following gems are among the 10 case studies included.
- While retirees worry over the fate of Deere & Co.’s pension surplus, which is shrinking because of stock market losses, the value of Deere CEO Robert Lane’s retirement income increased $5.5 million in fiscal 2008 to $22.5 million. Lane and other senior executives participate in not one but three different pension plans.
- SunTrust Bank, which received $4.9 billion from the federal bailout fund, wants shareholders to approve a mega-grant of $7.7 million in stock options for James Wells, its chairman and chief executive officer, even as investors have lost billions.
- Corporations are giving generous contracts to top execs while fighting workers’ freedom to form unions by spending millions to oppose the Employee Free Choice Act.
- Workers who are laid off in these tough economic times are lucky if they receive anything more than their last paycheck. But Richard Bond, who retired as CEO of Tyson Foods in January, stands to collect more than $14 million in “golden parachute” severance payments.
The site includes a special section on runaway CEO pay and the Wall Street bailout and offers a user-friendly database where you can find out CEO pay. And in the spirit of the guy who sold Bernie Madoff dolls in a kit that included golden hammers to smash the statues to bits, we have a fun little e-game, “Boot the CEO!” where you can aim golden boots at the money bag-toting CEO.
Ultimately, of course, the union movement is all about taking action. So at our PayWatch site, you can send a letter to Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), chairmen of the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, respectively.
Click here to let them know we’re counting on them to draft legislation that truly strengthens our financial regulations and begins curing the disease that has infected our economic system.
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Dugg right here — please join me!
plutocrats=good
everybodyelseandtheirfamilies,too=bad
Dugg!
And as far as Frank and Dodd go, we need to make it impossible for them to profit (politically or otherwise) by smothering real oversight.
I am very disappointed in both of them.
DUGG!
It is high time that CEO pay is reigned in and workers are given the right to form/join Unions with management held at arms length so they can not interfere in any way or manner! If management tries to interfere I think some jail time should be meted out as they are interfering with workers rights!
Gee Seems like the late late niters are here in force hello!
Off to make lunch!!
Somebody say something about latenighters?
Capital One keeps calling us cause they want their money. I just looked up the ceo’s salary. $68,000.00 in 2008
17million in 2007. Guess where I am telling them to get their money. It is unAmerican to pay your credit card debt. The money should go into the economy not in the pockets of banksters.
with the caveat that the rethugs have somehow convinced (a few) working class teabaggers to fight for their CEO patrons. Ah, the face of contemporary populism. Bread and Circus.
I wish there was an easy way to convey this information to the public. Sadly, the banksters/Faux and Co and their ilk have control over what these people see and hear. What happened on April 15 was a total sham, and these poor tool-bags did not see that they were totally used.
Unless we find a way (and Tula has showed us here) to really set them straight, they will never see the real picture. Just stay tuned to Faux and Co–unfair and unbalanced to the end.
letters sent tula. thanks for this – tis a travesty that the ceo’s are rewarded with higher pay and perks instead of being held to the same harsh treatment their employees get when times are tough.
The problems with the system is the system. Stockholders are routinely held up as the ones who run things but the reality is that much of the stock is held by funds who routinely endorse the companies nominees. It is a big cabal.
News Corps has 60 shell companies in tax havens, pays 25% less than Disney’s rate.
Carl Levin’s report on tax havens:
http://levin.senate.gov/newsro…..?id=308945
Somehow, that info never troubles fox’s teabagers.
If they are the teabaggers are we the teabaggees? Hope not.
Swopa is upstairs!
They Just Don’t Get It: Torture and the GOP’s Missing Moral Compass
I just came back from meeting with my members (IUOE, Stationary Engineers- Local 39) who work at the Yountville VA here in California. They are working without a contract. Their Governor is furloughing (2 days per month – a 10% pay cut) and threatening layoffs. They are demonized by the public on a daily basis. They don’t know what to do, who to blame, lack good sources of information with conterxt. I am at a loss as to what to do to help them organize and demand change. I offered my example of routine calls to Diane F, Nancy P, Doris M, and the like – demanding that they start paying attention to things that matter to working people like jobs, affordable quality healthcare, respect for and acknowledgement of the contributions of working men and women.
Any suggestions?
In the Bush years there was an enormous increase in corporate profitability. However, workers and shareholders did not see any of it; the senior management class took it all.