June, 2009 archive
News from the Front 0
This morning, Second Son called to make an eye doctor’s appointment. He can’t get one until late August.
Seems all the persons who have been laid off are making appointments before their health coverage runs out.
Back Pay 0
MarketWatch:
(snp)
But, over the past two decades, actual payments made by public companies have been scant, helping to support the argument by corporate boards that golden coffin payments are rare and a cheap way to retain and lure CEOs.
There are two fallacies here in this golden coffin thingee.
One is the myth of the CEO, the notion that somehow choosing a CEO is the make or break decision for a company. Sure, there have been a few cases where one person at the top has managed to lead a company out of danger to new fortunes–Jack Welch at GE comes to mind–or the wrong person at the top has led a company to destruction, but the unusual experiences of one or two companies is really not a good basis for management policy across the economy.
The other is that money is not just an important, but the only means for motivating performance. That just ain’t how people work. It is certainly important, but, after you’ve accummulated several gazillion bucks, what’s a few million more? except perhaps as a way of keeping score versus other CEOs (and that’s motivation by competitiveness, not by money). Frankly, persons who are motivated solely by money tend to be fairly untrustworthy. because the desire for money overrides other values.
Not credit default swaps that AIG any Citigroup business Ameriquest would Bear Sterns do Lehman anything Standard and Poors dicey Moody’s just Zero-Option ARMs for money. Certainly not.
“Pay for Performance” 0
Steve Bell illustrates modern compensation theory and practice.
And the Line Is . . . 0
Steve makes book.
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
Reuters:
The Labor Department said the number of U.S. workers filing new claims for unemployment benefits last week jumped unexpectedly by 15,000 to a higher-than-forecast, seasonally-adjusted total of 627,000.
Continued claims, which gauge how many Americans were still on jobless rolls after an initial week of claims, rose 29,000 to 6.738 million in the week ended June 13, the latest period for which the data was available.
I was in the local quicky lube this morning–I’d pushed the current oil change as far as I could–and only one of the two bays was in use until I arrived.
A fellow came in looking for a job (I guess you would call it a “lube job”). The manager took his application, but warned him that things were really bad, that he was having to cut his employees’ shifts and hours. “Just this morning,” he said, “I had to send two persons home because I didn’t need them today.”
Quote of the Day 0
The Internet Is a Public Place, Wingnut Dept. 0
It’s not a good idea to go threatening persons’ lives and safety.
One of the things that puzzles and appalls me about the far right is how quickly and casually they employ the rhetoric of death and violence, as if killing those with whom they disagree would somehow be a good thing.
And then, when someone acts on that rhetoric, they all look around blankly, like little Jeffie in the Family Circus cartoon, and say in chorus, “Not me.”
Banks’ Robbery 0
Best done out of the light
Fees imposed by banks accounted for 53 percent of industry income in 2008, up from 35 percent in 1995, according to R.K. Hammer Investment Bankers, a credit-card advisory firm. JPMorgan Chase & Co., the second-largest U.S. bank by assets, said such revenue doubled in the first quarter. A U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Agency also may add costs by expanding scrutiny.
Pay for Parformance 0
Honestly, you can’t make this stuff up:
The fees were $2,940.80. Fenton made more than $3.5 million in total compensation during 2006.
The suit, brought under the whistle-blower protection provision of the post-Enron Sarbanes-Oxley Act, claims McDonald’s discriminated against Bridges by firing her when she objected to the company’s alleged scheme.
It’s not just the pay and the bonuses. It’s the perks.
No wonder executives start to think of themselves as somehow anointed, rather than appointed.
Don’t Race the Train to the Crossing 3
If it’s a tie, you lose.
Greater Wingnuttery XXVII 0
Shorter Grover Norquist: Adultery is good.
Aside:
Q. What’s the difference between Republican politicians and Hugh Hefner?
A. Hugh Hefner lives his values.
Buzzword of the Day 0
From BuzzWhack.
Reinventing the Flat Tire:
To make the same mistake made before, despite extended debate and a formal vote.
Sounds like the wingnut worldview to me.
News from Dell 0
Joke of the Day 0
Another one bites the dust.
Has any political party ever done more to discredit themselves and to demonstrate that their talking points are, well, nothing more than talking points?
I trained as a historian. My tentative answer to that question is, “Not in a gazillion years!”
Furrfu.
Undue Diligence 0
CitiGroup discovers that it’s been buying mortgage loans that aren’t properly documented and decides that’s probably not a good idea:
Other missing information included employment confirmations, phone numbers, credit reports and rent verification, the letter said. The review also found “income calculation errors.”
The suspension of correspondent lending is “a bold step” that may frustrate Citigroup’s mortgage-banking partners and put them on notice that the company will no longer tolerate incomplete loan submissions, said David Lykken, managing partner at consultant Mortgage Banking Solutions in Austin, Texas.
When bankers adopted The Donald as their role-model, deciding that it was all about The Deal and not about the investment, they don’t seem to have noticed that The Donald’s deals keep teetering on bankruptcy.
