Salary Celery

This really kind of burns my butt:

Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Kenneth Feinberg, the Obama administration's special master for executive compensation, said he is "very concerned" about the possibility his pay cuts may drive talent away from companies bailed out by U.S. taxpayers.

"Maybe I've struck the right balance," Feinberg said, referring to criticism that he has been too harsh and too easy on executives. "Hopefully some of this will percolate into the private sector, we'll have to see," he said today at a Washington conference held by Bloomberg Ventures, a unit of Bloomberg LP, parent of Bloomberg News.

Feinberg has ordered pay cuts averaging 50 percent for the top 25 executives at Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp., American International Group Inc. and four other companies that took U.S. bailout money. He will rule on pay structures covering the next 75 highest-paid employees at those firms by year-end.

OK, look...all I have to say is...WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?!?!?!??!

 

Mr. Feinberg, please rethink your concerns.

 

These are the idiots who ran Citigroup, Bank of America, AIG and the others INTO THE GROUND!!!! Why should we give a rat's ass about whether they abandon ship now that it's been righted and set back on course?

 

If anything, anything, we should be shoving them out the door and HOPE they end up at a healthy bank, like Goldman Sachs, so that the playing field will level out and the American people can get their bailout money back faster!

 

We've already lost $2 billion in the CIT bailout/bankruptcy...which handed Goldman $1 billion of our money!

 

Maybe I'm wrong, but when a firm doesn't require our money to be bailed out, and still gets a sizable chunk of it, then there's something wrong. But I digress...

 

What's the concern if traders leave those firms where they DON'T get bonuses in favor of those that do give them?

 

Answer: None. Supply and demand will more than take care of the problem. A glut of available traders will automatically lower the average salary and bonus for all, and will in fact, help strengthen those companies who are running with bloated payrolls and insane bonus packages.

 

Problem solved, in other words. And we can get back to the business of running a country, not companies.