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    "It liberates the vandal to travel--you never saw a bigoted, opinionated, stubborn, narrow-minded, self-conceited, almighty mean man in your life but he had stuck in one place since he was born and thought God made the world and dyspepsia and bile for his especial comfort and satisfaction." - The American Abroad speech, 1868 - Mark Twain

    Travel has no longer any charm for me. I have seen all the foreign countries I want to except heaven & hell & I have only a vague curiosity about one of those. - Letter to W. D. Howells, 5/20/1891 - Mark Twain

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« Quick Throat | Main | LIAR! LIAR! »

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Walking The Platinum Plank

Yeah OK, the news about some Wall Streeter [ex-Morgan Stanley executive Stephen Crawford] bagging a cool $32-Mill for doing a shitty job, over only 90-days, is a few days old now, but it took time to get my Joe Sixpack head around the absurdity of it all. I mean c'mon, that's more Filthy Lucre than even Tiger Woods pulls down for a quarter, and Tiger is the best at what he does! Not a loser like this dude Crawford [albeit a "loser" laughing all the way to the bank; joke courtesy of Morgan Stanley].

The title for this post originates from the text of a NYT editorial about this same insanity: The Wages of Failure on Wall Street. Here's an excerpt [emphasis/insertions added]:

"Mere groundlings juggling finances at their neighborhood A.T.M.'s [or PayDay Loan-Shark franchise] must pause slack-jawed at how Wall Street insiders are so ludicrously compensated for plain failure at steering their companies."

Most of the reports I've read on this news has focused on the sheer shock & awe of the numbers. But, below is a press release [emphasis added] that provides an actionable item. Those of us who count ourselves amongst the great unwashed masses should bring this latest legislative proposal, and our support for it, to the attention of our own Congress-persons:

Congressman Martin Olav Sabo (D-MN) has introduced "Income Equity Act of 2005" legislation which would limit government subsidization of excessive executive pay by eliminating tax deductions for compensation that exceeds 25 times the company's lowest paid full-time employee. For example, if the lowest paid, full-time employee in a firm was paid $20,000, then the highest salary deduction that could be claimed by that firm would be $500,000.

Here is the entire Sabo press release [emphasis & links added]:

Washington, D.C. – Flanked by pay equity advocates, Congressman Martin Olav Sabo (D-MN) introduced his legacy legislation, the Income Equity Act. Sabo intends to further expose the gap between the incomes of America’s highest- and lowest-paid workers, which continues to grow as recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau.

As a way to illustrate this growing disparity, Congressman Sabo revealed that 11,660 U.S. workers could have been paid the minimum wage for a full year with the 2004 pay of $120.1 million of Yahoo Inc.’s CEO. A minimum wage worker would have to work 11,660 years to earn $120.1 million.

“Instead of such high ceilings and such low floors for compensation in American business, my legislation encourages companies to review how they are paying all of their employees,” Congressman Sabo said.

Sabo’s bill would limit government subsidization of excessive executive pay by eliminating tax deductions for compensation that exceeds 25 times the company’s lowest paid full-time employee. For example, if the lowest paid, full-time employee in a firm was paid $20,000, then the highest salary deduction that could be claimed by that firm would be $500,000.

Full-time working Americans should make enough money to get by without government assistance,” Sabo said. “My bill does not tell companies what they are allowed to pay top executives, but it intends to make them think about the top and bottom pay within a company and how they relate to one another. In many cases today, there is no correlation at all.”

Henry Ford was concerned about how to compensate his employees at Ford Motor Company. His philosophy was that his factory workers should be able to buy the product they were making,” Congressman Sabo said.

In the wake of corporate scandals and continued high-dollar severance packages for failing CEOs who are forced out, income inequality is as problematic as ever. BusinessWeek magazine recently reported that CEO pay is up 15 percent, while average worker pay is up only 2.9 percent. Even as the economy grew 4.4 percent last year, real wages have fallen due to the increased costs of consumer goods at 3.3 percent.

“When we lay before our executives grotesquely huge incentives as rewards for performance, we should not be surprised when executives, to win those rewards, behave grotesquely,” said United for a Fair Economy’s Sam Pizzigati.

In addition to compensation trends, the Bush Administration tax policy has included repealing the estate tax and slashing taxes for millionaires. As a result, the gap between rich and poor continues to grow. The Congressional Budget Office confirmed that President Bush's tax cuts do favor the wealthy, with one-third of the Bush tax cuts going to the top 1% of households (those with an average income of $1.1 million per year).

On the issue of the Social Security Trust Fund solvency, the Economic Policy Institute recently testified before the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means that increased wage inequality and wage growth stagnation since 1983 account for nearly 60 percent of the actuarial shortfall in Social Security. [BloggerRadio adds: rescind the tax-cuts to the wealthy, mentioned in the paragraph just above, and increase the federal minimum wage (stagnant for nearly a decade now) and presto, no SS shortfall! Duh!]

Today's CEOs make approximately 300 times what the average American worker earns," explains Brandon Rees of the AFL-CIO Office of Investment. "Working families' retirement savings are invested in these companies, and excessive CEO pay comes at the expense of America's retirement security.” [BloggerRadio adds: hell, these are the same corporate types who advocate shirking their promised employee pension commitments, shifting that burden onto the backs of working-class taxpayers! Can you say robber-barons?]

In the 1980s and 1990s, Congress enacted legislation on executive compensation. In 1984, Congress passed a “golden parachute” law that defined severance packages as excess payments, making them non-deductible and imposing a 20 percent excise tax on recipients. In 1993, Congress limited the deduction for executive compensation to $1 million per executive. Rep. Sabo’s legislation would take the next common sense step to limit deductibility to an amount that correlates to a company’s existing pay scale.

Please urge your Congressional representation to do both the right thing, and the common-sense thing. Call yours toll free at: 1-877-762-8762, ask for the office of your Rep, and ask them to co-sponsor / support Congressman Sabo's Income Equity Act of 2005.

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« Quick Throat | Main | LIAR! LIAR! »

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Walking The Platinum Plank

Yeah OK, the news about some Wall Streeter [ex-Morgan Stanley executive Stephen Crawford] bagging a cool $32-Mill for doing a shitty job, over only 90-days, is a few days old now, but it took time to get my Joe Sixpack head around the absurdity of it all. I mean c'mon, that's more Filthy Lucre than even Tiger Woods pulls down for a quarter, and Tiger is the best at what he does! Not a loser like this dude Crawford [albeit a "loser" laughing all the way to the bank; joke courtesy of Morgan Stanley].

The title for this post originates from the text of a NYT editorial about this same insanity: The Wages of Failure on Wall Street. Here's an excerpt [emphasis/insertions added]:

"Mere groundlings juggling finances at their neighborhood A.T.M.'s [or PayDay Loan-Shark franchise] must pause slack-jawed at how Wall Street insiders are so ludicrously compensated for plain failure at steering their companies."

Most of the reports I've read on this news has focused on the sheer shock & awe of the numbers. But, below is a press release [emphasis added] that provides an actionable item. Those of us who count ourselves amongst the great unwashed masses should bring this latest legislative proposal, and our support for it, to the attention of our own Congress-persons:

Congressman Martin Olav Sabo (D-MN) has introduced "Income Equity Act of 2005" legislation which would limit government subsidization of excessive executive pay by eliminating tax deductions for compensation that exceeds 25 times the company's lowest paid full-time employee. For example, if the lowest paid, full-time employee in a firm was paid $20,000, then the highest salary deduction that could be claimed by that firm would be $500,000.

Here is the entire Sabo press release [emphasis & links added]:

Washington, D.C. – Flanked by pay equity advocates, Congressman Martin Olav Sabo (D-MN) introduced his legacy legislation, the Income Equity Act. Sabo intends to further expose the gap between the incomes of America’s highest- and lowest-paid workers, which continues to grow as recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau.

As a way to illustrate this growing disparity, Congressman Sabo revealed that 11,660 U.S. workers could have been paid the minimum wage for a full year with the 2004 pay of $120.1 million of Yahoo Inc.’s CEO. A minimum wage worker would have to work 11,660 years to earn $120.1 million.

“Instead of such high ceilings and such low floors for compensation in American business, my legislation encourages companies to review how they are paying all of their employees,” Congressman Sabo said.

Sabo’s bill would limit government subsidization of excessive executive pay by eliminating tax deductions for compensation that exceeds 25 times the company’s lowest paid full-time employee. For example, if the lowest paid, full-time employee in a firm was paid $20,000, then the highest salary deduction that could be claimed by that firm would be $500,000.

Full-time working Americans should make enough money to get by without government assistance,” Sabo said. “My bill does not tell companies what they are allowed to pay top executives, but it intends to make them think about the top and bottom pay within a company and how they relate to one another. In many cases today, there is no correlation at all.”

Henry Ford was concerned about how to compensate his employees at Ford Motor Company. His philosophy was that his factory workers should be able to buy the product they were making,” Congressman Sabo said.

In the wake of corporate scandals and continued high-dollar severance packages for failing CEOs who are forced out, income inequality is as problematic as ever. BusinessWeek magazine recently reported that CEO pay is up 15 percent, while average worker pay is up only 2.9 percent. Even as the economy grew 4.4 percent last year, real wages have fallen due to the increased costs of consumer goods at 3.3 percent.

“When we lay before our executives grotesquely huge incentives as rewards for performance, we should not be surprised when executives, to win those rewards, behave grotesquely,” said United for a Fair Economy’s Sam Pizzigati.

In addition to compensation trends, the Bush Administration tax policy has included repealing the estate tax and slashing taxes for millionaires. As a result, the gap between rich and poor continues to grow. The Congressional Budget Office confirmed that President Bush's tax cuts do favor the wealthy, with one-third of the Bush tax cuts going to the top 1% of households (those with an average income of $1.1 million per year).

On the issue of the Social Security Trust Fund solvency, the Economic Policy Institute recently testified before the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means that increased wage inequality and wage growth stagnation since 1983 account for nearly 60 percent of the actuarial shortfall in Social Security. [BloggerRadio adds: rescind the tax-cuts to the wealthy, mentioned in the paragraph just above, and increase the federal minimum wage (stagnant for nearly a decade now) and presto, no SS shortfall! Duh!]

Today's CEOs make approximately 300 times what the average American worker earns," explains Brandon Rees of the AFL-CIO Office of Investment. "Working families' retirement savings are invested in these companies, and excessive CEO pay comes at the expense of America's retirement security.” [BloggerRadio adds: hell, these are the same corporate types who advocate shirking their promised employee pension commitments, shifting that burden onto the backs of working-class taxpayers! Can you say robber-barons?]

In the 1980s and 1990s, Congress enacted legislation on executive compensation. In 1984, Congress passed a “golden parachute” law that defined severance packages as excess payments, making them non-deductible and imposing a 20 percent excise tax on recipients. In 1993, Congress limited the deduction for executive compensation to $1 million per executive. Rep. Sabo’s legislation would take the next common sense step to limit deductibility to an amount that correlates to a company’s existing pay scale.

Please urge your Congressional representation to do both the right thing, and the common-sense thing. Call yours toll free at: 1-877-762-8762, ask for the office of your Rep, and ask them to co-sponsor / support Congressman Sabo's Income Equity Act of 2005.

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Stars and Stripes

  • American Flag in Distress

    "The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property."

    The Bush Administration is such an un-natural disaster, it warrants a "signal of dire distress" for the nation, for all Americans & for our future. McCain-Palin just represent more of the same failed policies.

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  • "To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
    -- Republican President Theodore 'Teddy' Roosevelt

    "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross." --Sinclair Lewis

    "If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy." -- James Madison

    "When the government fears the people it is a democracy....when the people fear their government it is tyranny..." -- Thomas Jefferson

    "The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders...tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger." – Herman Goering - Nazi

    "patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels." - Samuel Johnson

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Bush is the #1 GOP Republican


  • Never forget that Bush is the #1 GOP Republican. Reagan was an 80s Prez & he's dead now. GOP candidates all want you to forget the name 'Bush' and years of utter failures by the GOP.

    The GOP doesn't want you to be reminded of their net results. Never forget! Anyone who supported 'Bush' owes our country a make-up-call! So, VOTE DEMOCRATIC!

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    "War is a rackett"--Major General Smedley Darlington Butler, United States Marine Corps, 1881 - 1940, Double recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor.
    I'm inclined to agree.--DA
    -------
    "Many of those who want to rush this country into war and think it would be so quick and easy don't know anything about war. They come at it from an intellectual perspective, versus having sat in jungles or foxholes and watched their friends get their heads blown off."--Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska
    -------
    "We're in Bush country," Bradach said. "There will be a lot of detractors, people saying we aren't patriots. I'd like to know what they've given up.

    There is no way our children died in vain, not if we pay attention, not if we learn. I'm proud of my son. I love the Marines. And I'm very much against this war and always have been.

    I guess our children went and were sacrificed for us to take a look at what we let happen. We let this war happen. If nothing else, this is a huge lesson. Watch who you vote for. Watch what they're telling you. Don't be so afraid."
    --Lynn Bradach, mother of a fallen American Hero, from Oregon, in support of Cindy Sheehan

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  • Regarding "Trickle-Down Economics: "If you feed enough oats to the horse, some will pass through to feed the sparrows."--John Kenneth Galbraith

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  • Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.--Plato

  • Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.--Aristotle

  • "This is not about who they are. This is about who we are. We are Americans and we hold ourselves to a higher standard of conduct. And, no, the end does not justify the means. Not now. Not ever, when the means include torturing prisoners." --Republican Senator John McCain

  • "Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth"--Franklin D. Roosevelt

  • "When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle. --Edmund Burke

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