CEO Compensation Numbers

[paparush]

Sept. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Wall Street's five biggest firms paid more than $3 billion in the last five years to their top executives, while they presided over the packaging and sale of loans that helped bring down the investment-banking system.

Merrill Lynch & Co. paid its chief executives the most, with Stanley O'Neal taking in $172 million from 2003 to 2007 and John Thain getting $86 million, including a signing bonus, after beginning work in December. The company agreed to be acquired by Bank of America Corp. for about $50 billion on Sept. 15. Bear Stearns Cos.'s James ``Jimmy'' Cayne made $161 million before the company collapsed and was sold to JPMorgan Chase & Co. in June.

Lehman Brothers, Richard Fuld, received total compensation of US$71.9 million last year, including stock, bonuses and other pay, a survey published by Forbes magazine showed.

Martin Sullivan, the chief executive of AIG, who left the insurance giant before it was rescued this month by the federal government, received US$14 million, a survey in USA Today said. He also quit with a US$47 million severance package.

When the government took over collapsed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, ousted bosses Daniel Mudd and Richard Syron were not allowed US$12.59 million in severance payments.

Yet they still got out the door with US$9.43 million in retirement benefits.


From 1993 to 2003, median annual pay of CEOs at Standard & Poor's 500 .SPX companies jumped from $1.98 million to $6.58 million, an annual growth rate of 13 percent, according to a study by professors at Vanderbilt University and the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aGL5l6xOPEHc&refer=news

[Selatius]

1. I wonder what the minimum wage would be if it grew at 13 percent as well.

I wonder, I wonder.

[paparush]

2. And we pay Bush** $400K / yr. Now that is throwing money down a hole.

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

3. It is time to bring back the guillotine for these pigs

And repatriate every last dime these goons stole.

[ljm2002]

4. Now that's a severance package I could get behind!!!

...Okay, just kidding. I don't want to see heads literally roll... It's not that I'm squeamish, but really, it would disturb me. Honest.

But I would definitely like to see some heads roll metaphorically. Let's see some executives get fired and to hell with ANY severance pay.

Employees who are fired with cause can lose any severance pay they might otherwise have gotten. So why not the executives who engaged in fraud? Where the hell are the consequences for executives who engaged in FRAUD that BROUGHT DOWN OUR BANKING SYSTEM? Where the hell are their consequences???

Still steaming mad here...