Much of that taking place at the direction of our elected official’s mandated regulations.
Just sayin’
While I have little sympathy with the idiots who invested big in Subprime mortgages, it was a heck of a lot more than just “fatcat CEO’s” who caused the mess. It was a long string of government idiocy, involving regulations and non-regulations. There were threats from community organizers back by influential politicos. There were businessmen who turned a relatively sane idea (using mortgage investments as tradeable securities and capital) into a avery risky business. There were mathematicians who really, really didn’t understand that in an interconnected system, you could have a general decline across the board, and who didn’t understand that the economy is infinitely more complex than the hugest equation.
A lot of people made a lot of mistakes. And just ebout everyone wants to simply toss accusations at somebody for a quick and easy excuse. Frankly, for the first time in my life, I am almost ashamed to be an American. This kind of nonsense is not in our national character. Moreover, I see nothing to indicate that anyone in Washington (not Obama, not Pelosi, not Reid, and no Republican, either) has the slightest clue. No, they’re just using it for cheap political shots an to try and shovel in their pet programs.
And the idea that government could competently regulate a system is didn’t really know about and didn’t understand is, and didn’t understand the risks of is… dubious, at best.
So you’re saying trading things you don’t know what they’re worth (loan packets or whatever they called those things) was a wise business choice?
If so I have a wise business investment on some swamp land to sell you.
I’m not going to say the government didn’t have any blame, but those incompetent greedy sociopaths running those banks knew exactly what they were doing.
They should be ruined, but the “invisible hand” gave them golden parachutes.
Fuck bad bank CEOs. I’d like to see some legislation confiscating everything those incompetent assholes own and turning it over to retirees who’s life savings they ruined.
Also Bush knew about the risks even enough to warn about it, but got ADD when off on his fool war. You mistake government intervention for competent government intervention.
Just sayin’
It’s not revenue neutral from a consumer point. This tax will be passed directly to the consumer.
That’s what I get for repeating what they said in high school physics. Thanks for the correction.
There was a hell of a lot more to the banking problem than just ‘leadership’. It was a systemic problem. Blaming the guys at the top may be fun, and it may make you feel better, but you’re going to have to provide a little more proof that they were directly responsible before I’m willing to put them up against a wall.
But let’s talk about what could go wrong if you try to cap CEO wages:
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there could be strong incentive to not take companies public (assuming that privately held companies are not subject to this law). This means the greed of the guys at the top could prevent the company from getting the financing it needs to grow, ultimately leading to a less efficient economy and a business culture that is far less open to public scrutiny.
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CEOs could have more incentive to steal. These are people in charge of billions of dollars, and it will be awfully tempting to skim off the top if you can’t be paid what you think you are worth.
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There will be deadweight loss as companies seek to compensate their CEOs in other ways. Just as high taxes cause companies to increasingly engage in tax-avoidant behaviour, CEO pay caps may cause companies to engage in CEO-attracting behavior that diverts them from the most efficient path.
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You could have a brain drain. Putting a head office in Calgary or Toronto or London will look increasingly attractive.
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Some other effect that we can’t even guess at today. The law of unintended consequences rears its ugly head, as it often does when governments start pushing people around.
So no, you don’t get to just assume that capping CEO pay will magically make corporate America more efficient. My guess is that it will do exactly the opposite.
Ideas like capping CEO pay are populist measures, and populism is just about the ultimate in brain-dead action. Far too much evil and waste and foolishness has been done in the name of populism. Populism leads to fascism, to protectionism, to class warfare, and to a general breakdown in civil society.
You want to see where populism leads? Go have a look at France, where hundreds of cars are burned by angry mobs on an almost-daily basis. The same thing, on a lesser scale, is happening in Germany. When your leaders start pointing fingers and calling out the ‘greedy fatcats’ and claiming that they are responsible for all your woes, look out.
Sorry .but the guys at the top got mega millions and now have very little responsibility . You claimthey were not directly responsible. Now explain why they deserve mega millions for not being responsible.
Then you suggest these guys will go someplace else where they will be appreciated. Of course we pay our execs so much more than any other country. Where do they go. Of course they came up with these nifty,complicated instruments that took the whole world economy down. Who could resist those credentials on a resume?
If you’re going to start singling individuals out, Barney Frank & Chris Dodd would have to be included…just sayin’
They are responsible… to their investors. And that’s that. They are not responsible to you or anyone else who didn’t invest with them.