wsj.com:
Pensions for top executives rose an average of 19% in 2008, with more than 200 executives seeing pensions increase more than 50%, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis.
The executive-pension growth stemmed partly from generous pension formulas, which are based on executive pay, according to the filings
Les Leopold: Geithner Advocates Permanent Billionaire Bailout Society?
We can either prop up the billionaire bailout society as Geithner wants or we can begin the necessary process of breaking it up. You know what the financial interests want.
Les Leopold: Why Billionaires Should Pay for the Jobless Recovery
For the past 30 years we have minted billionaires, and we have created the most unequal distribution of wealth since 1928-29. This didn't happen by accident.
BBC NEWS | Business | State pensions to rise by 2.5%
Top traders at bailed-out RBS scoop £1.8bn | Business | The Observer
SSRN-Executive Pensions by Lucian Bebchuk, Robert Jackson
The secret pensions of fat-cat executives - MSN Money
U.S. executive pensions rose in '08 even as stocks fell: report
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A friend asked me if things were really hopeless and I said yes. There will be no meaningful change or reform and things will continued suck1ng they way they have since Reagan.
good articles; http://fin
And that was that.
What appears to jabe happened is that government is so influenced by banking and coporate interests it's as if coporatism rules..not government. Multi nationals pretty well do as they please, nothing much has changed. The G.E's , the Exxons, the Coca Cola's and the Walmarts of the world amd their government friends.
The global ruling class and then everyone else. The gap gets wider.
What continues to be under-reported is the sleazy method in which these corporate pirates have used shareholder funds to purchase favorable "pension reform" legislation from our elected officials. After which, through various accounting manuevers (e.g. pension freezes, cash balance conversions, phantom "profit" numbers from pension fund gains) they absconded with the lower levels' retirement money. It wasn't the much-decried "legacy pension" obligations that bankrupted GM, it was the obscene amount of corporate money the top level executives had funneled into their retirement kitties.
One a side note:
Carter was a great president who actually upheld :LIBERAL values
He got one term, but his legacy endures to this day and will for the generations to come
hat tip to http://fin
Obama can't fill the shoes Carter, Kennedy, Johnson, FDR . He's better than Clinton, but not good enough.
Pensions, eh? How many years have Wall Street, employers and Congress been telling us that having a 401(k) retirement fund is much better than having a traditional pension?
And yet the employers themselves still have pensions. And those pensions don't seem to be bankrupting their former employers. Oh, no; only the pensions of retired workers are bad. The pensions of retired CEOs are good.
Is anyone else getting really, really tired of this horse puckey?
Really tired. In Wall St the movie, greed is good. On the real Wall St it appears greed with alittle graft added is better.
Very to the point. Well put.
Never thought I would see the day, but it's arrived. Graft by Wall St. Fat Cats made legal by Congress and Administration. Blessing from the Supreme Court coming soon.
Most executive pensions are non-qualified pensions, meaning that the company can't take a tax deduction until they actually pay out the money to the executive. They are also supposed to be subject to creditors under bankruptcy.
Even with that, it is amazing that the incompetents and crooks at the top continue to get away with gorging on millions of dollars in specialized retirement plans. At the same time the same companies continue to close their pensions and stop matching contributions on 401(k)s.
We truly have a country that is socialism for the wealthy and cold hard capitalism for everyone else.
The rethugs were smart in making us think Obama was actually a dem.
It is abundantly clear they are powerfully pessimistic about the future of their companies, the economy and the Republic. They are cashing out while the cashing is good. Until we act, we are still just their suckers.
There was a time when companies funded pension plans for ALL employees, not just those who are the highest-paid and need them the least.
Executive pension plans should be illegal. Either provide generous pensions for all workers or execs should get nothing.
Abolish 457(b) plans too--never heard of them? They are the equivalent of the 401 k) but you can start taking money out when you are 55 without penalty and not have to wait until you are 59 and a half. Execs need 457 (b) plans because they are going to retire while they are young, but the rest of you can forget about that.
This is not simply an issue of basic fairness, it's an issue with implications for the long term health of the nation. Execs get all these bennies and then what happens to the workers after retirement who got so much less? They will run out of money sooner. Workers will need the social safety net to survive, they will be on the public dole sooner, and require more social services that your tax dollars pay for because people are living longer.
If you are concerned about the SS trust fund running out of money, then you should be pushing for employer-provided pensions for workers.
Welcome to the Kleptocracy.
While these guys are making billions, my small company is being crashed. Credit lines are not come back for us small guys and this white house doesn't know I am even alive. Thank God I have a strong woman with my Financial Domme and she gives me a piece of mind. She is better then a shrink. I'll do you all a favor and give you her link. Every company owner should avail themselves:
http://nau
The shareholders need to begin a serious revolt. It is time for individual investors to campaign against those high speed investors who distort share value and the execs who are robbing the shareholders blind from the inside out.
Shareholders certainly have complained. But the boards ignore them. Shareholders are only useful for being fleeced or for when a company claims they are acting in shareholders' interests while stealing the store.
The boards of directors of these companies need to held accountable by the stockholders. Otherwise all of the mutual back scratching that goes on in corporate America will continue.
Regulate the he*ck out of them.
Like the shareholders matter. Come on.
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First Posted: 11- 3-09 08:07 AM | Updated: 11- 3-09 08:11 AM