February, 2009 archive
“Grab, Get, and Goose” 0
That is compensation slang for a compensation program that attracts, retains, and motivates persons.
The often unstated truth is that, for most persons, pay in and of itself is not a motivator. If persons believe they are being compensated fairly, they just don’t worry about pay all that much. (Lack of pay, of course, is a motivator of sorts.)
In contrast, perceived unfair pay is a hell of a demotivator.
Wall Street, though, speaks as if pay is the only motivator; that is their defense of their bonus practices.
Dave Weidner considers this on MarketWatch:
If, as you threaten, we lose the so-called “best people” on Wall Street, then so be it.
If these are the same “best people” that former Merrill Lynch & Co. Chief Executive John Thain talked about in defending the 11th-hour bonus payout he made before his deal wit (sic) Bank of America closed, then what happens without the best people? Does Merrill lose double the near $30 billion it lost last year?
The big gray monster in the room that no one mentions is this:
Considering their performance, these were clearly not the “best people.” Indeed, they were clearly not (recalling the classifications in the old Sears Catalog) the better or even the good people.
They are buffons who drove their companies into the damned ground and are pulling the rest of us behind them.
Pay for performance my anatomy.
Facebook Exchange 0
Facebook Friend: [redacted] is dumbfounded at Sen. McConnell’s statement that the spending in the New Deal didn’t work. Are. You. Kidding. Me?
Me: Republicans lie. Get used to it.
Stray Thought 0
This house eats lighters.
Probably just as well.
No There There 0
Andrew Sullivan:
And he looks at the numbers. The Congressional numbers are particularly interesting:
If the image doesn’t work, just follow the link to Mr. Sullivan’s place.
As BarbinMD says,
Truth. No Reconciliation. 0
See the Booman for why.
The Latest for Your Dining Pleasure 0
Ummmmmmmmmm.
Soup.
City officials hope to dish out 65,000 free or inexpensive meals a day at the soup kitchens, he said.
Coming soon to a kitchen near you.
Turnarounds 0
The Coyote’s Byte:
And this surprises us how?
No Maxima. Minima. (Updated) 0
Nissan cutting 20,000 jobs (more than 8% of its workforce):
Must be that pesky UAW again. Oh, wait.
Addendum:
The Booman has a detailed analysis.
Stimulating Hope 0
DougJ at Balloon Juice:
As Duncan puts it, “Alienating Their Base.”
(Aside: I actually wrote this post before I read Duncan’s, but I had set mine to fire off in the wee hours.)
Drink Liberally 0
Tuesday, Triumph Brewing Company, Chestnut two blocks from Front, Philadelphia, Pa., 6 p.
I just checked the weather forecast. I might actually make it this week.
Terry Schiavo Redux (Updated) 2
Crusading against the facts of life and death in Italy. The lady in question has been in a coma for 16-years.
The usual crowd of fantasists insists on keeping the empty shell of her being “alive”:
But, in a moving interview with the Observer, Eluana’s father Beppino said last week that the doctors were carrying out his daughter’s wishes by allowing her to die. “If she couldn’t be what she was (before the accident in 1992) then she would not have wanted to live”.
Addendum:
Commentary from P. Z. Myers, via the Canadian Cynic.
Toxity 0
What it means in the world of “toxic assets” (emphasis added):
The financial institution that owns the bond calculates the value at 97 cents on the dollar, or a mere 3 percent loss. But S&P estimates it is worth 87 cents, based on the current loan-default rate, and could be worth 53 cents under a bleaker situation that contemplates a doubling of defaults. But even that might be optimistic, because the bond traded recently for just 38 cents on the dollar, reflecting the even gloomier outlook of investors.
(snip)
The bond is backed by 9,000 second mortgages used by borrowers who put down little or no money to buy homes. Nearly a quarter of the loans are delinquent, and losses on defaulted mortgages are averaging 40 percent. The security once had a top rating, triple-A.
What was happening is simple. Financial institutions were issuing funky mortgages to everybody they could rope in, without doing credit checks due diligence, so they could turn around and sell these bonds.
They didn’t want the mortgages. They wanted to sell the bonds.
And the ratings agencies, which were paid by the issuers of the insecurities, gave this junk the highest ratings. As long as everything was going up, everything kept going up. “Intrinsic value” had nothing to do with it.
The whole scam makes Bernie Madoff look like a piker.
No, I am not alleging conspiracy. I am alleging criminal greed, negligence, and immorality, all hidden in three-piece suits and Bentleys.
Just as “negligent homicide” is a real criminal charge, so too should be “negligent marketing.”
But the bozos who did this will not be going to jail. After all, they have three-piece suits and Bentleys.
The family that lost its house and its possessions and gets caught shoplifting a loaf of bread–it’s gonna be the Big House for them.
(Aside: If you believe in “market capitalism” in any form, non-regulated, deregulated, or regulated, that bond is worth 37 cents, because that’s what someone was willing to pay for it. Where S&P gets 87 cents I cannot imagine.)
IHT story via Harry Shearer.