<How Might We Be Fed? Part Two The Oil Drum World Energy Interview with Matt Simmons - Inside Look at the Past 16 Years>
<Drumbeat: March 20, 2009 DrumBeat Drumbeat: March 22, 2009>

76 comments on Drumbeat: March 21, 2009

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

Show without comments | PDF version

BrianT on March 21, 2009 - 9:53am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

The Times article was interesting-what was left unsaid is that many large publicly traded financial firms are not businesses. In many cases the bonuses paid out exceed the profits-the shareholders do not control the business in any way. Theoretically, there should never be a need for the public or politicians to complain about excessive employee compensation at a business-upper management would control expenses (including payroll) as they manage the business-this is not happening and not just at AIG. This really cannot be fixed-it is the Wall Street culture-were this to infect XOM, CVX or COP, as an example, billions of dollars in bonuses would be paid out (looted from the owners) and those would need bailouts-it hasn't happened as the corporate culture is different. Basically, Wall Street is based on the Scam, the Grift and when you hire Grifters to work for you or watch over your capital they will do their best to steal it every time. So now the money isn't just being stolen from the owners, now the taxpayers are being looted, with the promise from the Chosen One that someday this will end when the Grifters are finally sated. Maybe, but by that time the USA will have been permanently wounded economically.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
mcgowanmc on March 21, 2009 - 11:01am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

"Theoretically, there should never be a need for the public or politicians to complain about excessive employee compensation at a business-upper management would control expenses (including payroll) as they manage the business-this is not happening and not just at AIG."

So the US owns these businesses in all but name.

If the US formally states ownership, all toxic (fraud)
assets (horse race tickets) would be immmediately priced to market.

That would be $1.5 trillion for AIG alone.

The fraud here is AIG replaced "insurance" with "swap"
purposefully negating regulation and having only $100
million to back them.

I think arresting Cheney would buy us 6 more months.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
reeves on March 22, 2009 - 3:58am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Mac, many governments will not allow a foreign corporation to operate inside it's soverignty if the foreign corporation is more than 79.9% owned by a foreign government.

That is one reason that the US Gov does not totally own some corporations that it has taken a large ownership in. As you pointed out there are other reasons.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
NervousRex on March 21, 2009 - 11:14am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

BrianT: This really cannot be fixed-it is the Wall Street culture-were this to infect XOM, CVX or COP, as an example, billions of dollars in bonuses would be paid out (looted from the owners) and those would need bailouts-it hasn't happened as the corporate culture is different.

You're kidding, right?

Exxon Chairman Got Retirement Package Worth at Least $398 Million

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
BrianT on March 21, 2009 - 11:27am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

XOM currently is valued at approx 100X the value of AIG (as an example). This headline therefore would be comparable to "AIG Chairman gets retirement package worth $3.98 million dollars"-you won't see that headline-even the traders that wrecked the company would laugh at such a trivial sum. Why do you think XOM is worth so much-one of the reasons is that management has resisted the temptation to gut the company as the financials have been gutted.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
r4ndom on March 21, 2009 - 4:42pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

That "Trivial Sum" is more than both my parents made over their entire working lives.

Some trivia, eh?

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
BrianT on March 21, 2009 - 6:37pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

As a follow up, today it is announced that Obama will attempt to control executive compensation at all Wall Street firms and financial institutions. This appears to be an admission that because of the combination of impotent shareholders (they can sell or sell short, either way management continues looting), corrupt management and lax regulation there is no viable way to prevent these firms from imploding even after they are rescued (short of some sort of government oversight). Now the CEOs whine, but nodbody told them to piss in the pool. I guess they feel we should have told them they shouldn't.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

76 comments on Drumbeat: March 21, 2009

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

Show without comments | PDF version