Pay Czar, Kenneth Feinberg Says His Biggest Disappointment Is That He Has No 'Direct, Mandatory Power'

bloomberg.com:

Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Kenneth Feinberg, the U.S. special master on executive compensation, said he's disappointed he lacks authority to have greater influence over Wall Street pay.

"The biggest disappointment, I think, is that under the statute my jurisdiction is so narrow, and so circumscribed, that I have no real direct mandatory power over other Wall Street or other national companies,” Feinberg said today...

Read the whole story: bloomberg.com

Comments

[yourmomscalling]

02:00 PM on 01/10/2010

Pay Czar, Kenneth Feinberg Says His Biggest Disappointment Is That He Has No 'Direct, Mandatory Power'

TRUE VERY TRUE JUST ANOTHER REASON TO VOTE THEM ALL OUT A HUGE WASTE OF TAXPAYER MONEY !!!!!!

[NeoconGal]

11:52 PM on 01/09/2010

Why would a person in a job that means nothing want mandatory powers?

[tokyoso]

06:30 AM on 01/08/2010

Wall Street always gets the last laugh, and the first.

[ProfessorDuh]

06:20 AM on 01/08/2010

Both parties' vocal "outrage" at the taxpayer-paid million-dollar bonuses is mostly BS. Both parties shoveled free taxpayer billions at the financial sector that caused the worldwide economic crash without demanding any responsible behavior in return. Now the politicians are worried that someone will hang what they've done around their necks.

[eweqo]

04:06 AM on 01/08/2010

he should move to cuba. that's the kind of power they believe in.

[desertman]

12:48 AM on 01/08/2010

Sounds like a frustrated little dictator.

[nopilikia]

12:44 AM on 01/08/2010

Really, then demand it. Don't get it. Then grow a big pair and resign like Elliot Richardson.

[vinny]

11:26 PM on 01/07/2010

feinberg: i can't get off my czarass cause i'm sitting on my hands...

[Hawkman4]

10:31 PM on 01/07/2010

I still like the idea where the first $400,000 is counted as an expense and anything over is taken from profit.

[econ1]

09:12 PM on 01/07/2010

"I have no real direct mandatory power over other Wall Street or other national companies."

I miss that too.

[linton]

06:53 PM on 01/07/2010

By the power vested in me, I hereby confer on Mr. Feinberg all the power he needs to perform his job.

[RomeoMD25]

05:03 PM on 01/07/2010

Face it; the Obama administration is less interested in engineering a strong recovery than they are with micromanaging a protracted downturn. That’s because a long drawn-out mini-Depression puts the Rubin troupe right where they want to be—with one hand choking the life out of the economy while the other steals whatever is left in the national vault. They’re all scoundrels. Obama, too.

[ProfessorDuh]

06:22 AM on 01/08/2010

Permit me to refresh your memory. Bush started his term with a surplus. He ended with his deficit-ridden administration behind closed doors with Congress, demanding a trillion dollars in corporate welfare and threatening imposition of martial law on America with days.

[thrashertm]

09:34 AM on 01/09/2010

Two wrongs do not make a right. Bush and Obama should be sharing a prison cell.

[PJay1]

04:25 PM on 01/07/2010

If he doesn't have the power, why does he have a well paying job, compliments of us taxpayers?

[ResoluteBob]

10:54 PM on 01/07/2010

Yes. If he's not able to do the job that he expected to do, should he not do the honorable thing and resign?

[No2bailouts]

03:46 PM on 01/07/2010

I still believe the US economy & government is a joke that only exists to serve and enrich the already wealthy & well connected.
hat tip to http://iamned-site.blogspot.com/

[Jeffin90019]

02:23 PM on 01/07/2010

All the "czars" Obama has appointed are in extra-constitutional roles, working outside the framework of our government to achieve goals that couldn't otherwise be achieved. In other words, the Obama administration is as lawless as the Bush regime, which Obama was disinclined to investigate for war crimes. I guess O liked the idea of being the Decider with no pesky laws in his way. So disappointing.

[tralbry]

02:33 PM on 01/07/2010

Nonsense. The creation of czars is nothing more than delegation of executive powers, hardly pioneered by Obama. You're essentially claiming that they have too much power when in fact the point of this article is that his guy has almost none. Feckless czars for a Feckless president.

[thrashertm]

09:37 AM on 01/09/2010

Fineberg has the power to coerce though. Suppose a company doesn't go along with his "request/suggestion" to moderate their pay. Then what happens? How about a top-to-bottom IRS audit or SEC investigation, or various other kinds of government-induced harassment. He does have power, and it's frightening.