On Mar 22, 2009, at 12:49 AM, LuKreme wrote: > On 21-Mar-2009, at 21:03, Charles Bennett wrote: >> On Mar 21, 2009, at 11:31 AM, Kevin Callahan wrote: >>> http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/03/geithner-aide-fought-ceo-pay-reform >>> >>> As a Goldman Sachs lobbyist, Mark Patterson once worked against a >>> bill to curb executive compensation. The legislation's sponsor: >>> Barack Obama. >>> —By David Corn and Jonathan Stein >> >> and now. >> >> <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/us/politics/22regulate.html> >> >> "The new rules will cover all financial institutions, including those >> not now covered by any pay rules because they are not receiving >> federal bailout money. Officials say the rules could also be applied >> more broadly to publicly traded companies, which already report about >> some executive pay practices to the Securities and Exchange >> Commission." >> >> >> IF they try to take this to any publicly traded company EVEN if they >> are taking no bailout money then I have a big problem with it. > > I don't. The practice of "bonuses" is simply an end-run around tax > laws in the first place.
The bonus is taxable at the income rate of the individual to whom it is paid. The government doesn't lose money assuming, unlike congress, the trader actually PAYS taxes. > They should simply make bonuses that exceed > 50% of salary OR $100,000, whichever is more, illegal. Who died and put the federal government in charge of setting any pay limits? Hell, why don't we decide that no one should make a bonus. That way we can all be poor together, knowing that Obama's latest 5 year plan will bring us food and happiness sometime real soon. No need to work hard to EARN a bonus. That wouldn't fit the fairness plan. People might actually get ahead or something. All you need to agree to is a minor "oversight" of your wages. > A lot of wall street bonuses are part of "pay for performance" and "golden handcuffs" The folks are hired guns that cut a deal where they get a base salary and a percentage of the profits of any deal they make. (think car salesman writ large) the bonus part is a "golden handcuff" to discourage them from taking their talents elsewhere. These people bring in hundreds of millions of dollars for the company and get a percentage. WHAT they are paid is nobodies business but the stockholders and the board. As an aside, many moons ago I had a friend that worked as a programmer for swiss bank. He developed some complex currency derivative trading software than made them many millions the first year (200 or so IIRC). They gave him (making about 70k a year) a 3 million dollar bonus, if he would agree to a 5 year contract and a no compete clause, because they didn't want he to walk across the street and sell himself to a competitor.[1] They also paid the mortgage on his house for the 5 years he stayed. Should that bonus have been illegal? I can't see why? =c= [1] he bought a bed and breakfast and retired after the contract ran out. _______________________________________________ OSX-Nutters mailing list | [email protected] http://lists.tit-wank.com/mailman/listinfo/osx-nutters List hosted at http://cat5.org/
