** House Oversight Hearing - Waxman, CEO Pay and the Mortgage Crisis

[MiniMe]

Weblink: http://www.cspan.org/watch/cs_cspan_wm.asp?Cat=TV&Code=CS

Take a day off from the primaries.


The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is holding a hearing titled, “Executive Compensation II: CEO Pay and the Mortgage Crisis” on Friday, March 7, at 10:00 a.m., in 2154 Rayburn House Office Building.

Click here for live video of the hearing.

The hearing will examine the compensation and retirement packages granted to the CEOs of three corporations deeply involved in the current mortgage crisis. This will be the Committee’s second hearing on executive compensation practices. On December 5, 2007, the Committee examined the role of compensation consultants in determining CEO pay.

The following witnesses are expected to testify:




Panel I
Dr. Susan M. Wachter, Richard B. Worley Professor of Financial Management, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
The Honorable William F. Galvin, Secretary of State, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
The Honorable Brenda L. Lawrence, Mayor, City of Southfield, MI
Dr. Anthony Yezer, Professor of Economics, The George Washington University
Ms. Nell Minow, Editor and Co-Founder, The Corporate Library
Panel II
Mr. Charles Prince, Former Chairman and CEO, Citigroup
Mr. Richard D. Parsons, Chair, Personnel and Compensation Committee, Citigroup
Mr. E. Stanley O'Neal, Former Chairman and CEO, Merrill Lynch
Mr. John D. Finnegan, Chair, Management Development & Compensation Committee, Merrill Lynch
Mr. Angelo R. Mozilo, Founder and CEO, Countrywide Financial Corporation
Mr. Harley W. Snyder, Chair, Compensation Committee, Countrywide Financial Corporation

[VP505]

1. I would like to get

excited thinking that something will come from the hearings, but...

[ProfessorGAC]

3. I Share Your Concern

The witness list is almost all execs from megacorps. What, we think they're going to say "Oh yeah, we get paid WAY too much."?
The Professor

[havocmom]

2. One young exec from a lender that went bust, costing 10,000 people their jobs with the company:

"Their job was to make me money, and now that's over." <---Actual words of a First Magnus exec when asked about the workers who came to work one day and were told they didn't have jobs anymore.

That is probably not a unique attitude for these corporate vampires.

And those 10,000 people? Gotta figure many of them couldn't keep paying their mortgage payments. The loss of the money THEY kept in circulation in their areas cost other businesses to slump, resulting in layoffs in other industries. Lather, rinse, repeat.


Seems the brass at too many (if not MOST) large corporations are not working to make a product or provide a service. They work to create a favorable series of quarterly reports so they look good on paper and can sell lots of stock. They keep up appearances until they collapse then, when they close slam the doors on the workers who really did try to create goods or provide services, all they have to say is:< [i>Their job was to make me money, and now that's over

It is WAY past time for a little governmental oversight and regulation. And I would like Congress to haul in Tommy Sullivan for some questioning. Wipe the smirk off his face and apply some heat to the spoiled brat. The workers made Tommy Boy a lot of money and now that is over. Oh, and too bad about paychecks they were entitled to for time already worked. Too bad about bills they had to pay....

Symptom of the disease

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/firstmagnus/197618
arizona daily star Tucson, Arizona | Published: 08.22.2007

After filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Tucson Tuesday, the company asked the court for immediate permission to pay its remaining 159 employees, including payments of $8,333 to its five corporate officers.

First Magnus also requested that the more than 5,000 employees laid off by the company nationwide be paid when "adequate funds become available" through financing or the sale of assets. That process could take months, one expert said.
The company owes about $13 million in payroll and related expenses, according to court filings.
But in the meantime, the approximately 650 employees laid off in Southern Arizona will be getting some help in the form of $2,000 gift checks from First Magnus shareholders and executives, including CEO G.S. Jaggi, said First Magnus spokesman Gary Baraff. The checks are expected to be cut and mailed today, he said.
After losing their jobs with little notice, a number of former employees expressed outrage at being left without final checks to pay upcoming expenses, such as mortgage payments or rent.

Look at it again: "the company asked the court for immediate permission to pay its remaining 159 employees, including payments of $8,333 to its five corporate officers.' Workers outside the immediate area can just suck it up and wait but pay the the five corporate officers! 'Gift' the local employees to get a little good press in the Tucson paper and too bad about the rest of the employees in other towns. From linked page: "Former employees outside of Southern Arizona will not receive assistance,...". Outta sight, outta mind. Their job was to make the boss money and now that's over, I guess.

These guys need to be SERIOUSLY taken to the national woodshed for a whoopin.