America’s Greediest: The 2010 Top Ten

[marmar]

from Too Much: A Commentary on Excess and Inequality:



America’s Greediest: The 2010 Top Ten
December 19, 2010

They came, they saw, they took it all. Welcome to the world where thieves have no honor and those most honored — with lavish rewards — hone their talents hammering the rest of us.


By Sam Pizzigati

Hard times can be good times — for the aggressively avaricious. Where others see pain, they see opportunity. In desperation, they delight. The grimmer the economic outlook, the more ghastly their grabbing.

And who grabbed the most outrageously in 2010? We offer below our annual take on America’s ten greediest of the year.

....(snip)....

7/ Don Blankenship: Dirty business as usual

Outside the nation’s coal fields, few Americans knew Don Blankenship, the CEO at Massey Energy, before last April. But that all changed after an explosion that month left 29 Massey miners dead. Reporters would soon grill Blankenship about the mine’s long history of safety violations, over 500 in 2009 alone.

“Violations,” the Massey chief coldheartedly retorted, “are unfortunately a normal part of the mining process.”

Almost as normal as windfall paychecks for Don Blankenship. The Massey CEO took home nearly $34 million in 2005, about quadruple the industry standard. Over the last three years, he has waltzed away from his office with another $38.2 million. But the real waltzing is only now beginning.

The 60-year-old Blankenship is retiring at the end of this year with a pension valued at $5.7 million, another $12 million in severance, still another $27.2 million in deferred pay, title to a company-owned house, and a two-year consulting agreement that pays $5,000 a month for no more than 32 hours work.

Blankenship may even exit, once all this year’s stats have come in, with a 2010 “performance” bonus that factors in safety.

How can a coal company CEO with 29 dead miners get a safety bonus? Massey’s flagship safety standard, “Non-Fatal Days Lost,” merely multiplies “the number of employee work-related accidents times 200,000 hours, divided by the total employee hours worked.” Death doesn’t factor in.

....(snip)....

3/ Mark Hurd: Unfurling a platinum parachute

The truly greedy don’t just grab — at the expense of those they overpower. And the truly greedy don’t just feel entitled to grab all they can get. The truly greedy feel invincible while they’re grabbing away, just like former Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd.

Hurd gained the HP reins in 2005. He proceeded to pocket $134.2 million, through 2009, mainly be wheeling and dealing his way through dozens of mergers that killed nearly 40,000 jobs.

HP’s board cheered Hurd on, every step of the way, until this past August when news surfaced that the married CEO had wined and dined a former erotic actress, handed her a huge and undeserved marketing contract, and then fudged HP’s books to cover up his indiscretions.

That arrogance would cost Hurd his job, but not much else. Hurd left HP with a severance package that may total $40 million and almost immediately landed a comfy new gig as president of business software giant Oracle. His new contract will bring Hurd, in his first Oracle year, as much as $11 million — and a boss, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, who just happens to be his buddy. ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://toomuchonline.org/americas-greediest-the-2010-top-ten/

[ladjf]

1. Identifying the greedy is a good idea. Make sure that the facts

are correct. nt

[Lucky Luciano]

2. Blankenship was my number one for his reckless murder of the miners. nt

[divine_truine]

3. There's a BIG difference between healthy profits & overreaching GREED!

And just quick reminder to all DU readers: corporations sitting on record profits since the BUSH administration bailed out the banks w/ T.A.R.P. The greedy old party (g.o.p.) would have everyone (especially gullible teabaggers) believe the obama admin. was the one implementing the bank bailout! These creepy corporations sitting on their ill-gotten profits are also looking for greener pasture$ in other countries trolling for cheaper labor. again, these same corporations became in successful thanks to America. It's pretty shtty of these companies who ship jobs overseas caring not how these decisions would affect their home country; in this case America. The concept of a free market society (code word for globalization) is a fallacy and is completely unsustainable. Those 'private' companies sitting on ill-gotten profits (because a black guy is in executive branch) or have immediate plans to ship jobs overseas should have to pay through nose if they are knowingly trying to further disrupt our fragile economy. Better yet, nationalize those f#ckers who are part of the problem and be done with it!

DEBT FORGIVENESS FOR HUMAN BEINGS ACROSS THE BOARD! that would surely kick start the economy real quick!

[Doctor_J]

4. Man, we are desperately in need of a guillotine party in this country

these people are filth, killing and maiming with no repercussions.

:wtf: happened to the founders' spirit? Our forefathers would have executed these people without a second thought.