Unchecked Corporate Greed

By JIM ABRAMS
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON -- Three corporate executives called in for a shaming by Democratic lawmakers Friday defended raking in hundreds of millions of dollars despite contributing to the subprime mortgage crisis that has their companies reeling from losses and the nation on the edge of recession.

"There's a complete disconnect with reality," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

But the CEOs testifying before the committee, Angelo Mozilo of Countrywide Financial Corp.; Stanley O'Neal, formerly of Merrill Lynch & Co; and Charles Prince, formerly of Citigroup Inc.; defended their pay as appropriate.

"As our company did well, I did well," said Mozilo, founder of Countrywide, the nation's largest mortgage lender and a key player in the subprime problem. "But when our company did not do well, as in 2007, my direct compensation and the value of my holdings declined materially, which is as it should be."

Republicans on the committee generally agreed. "This is a hearing in search of bad guys," said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif. "All of you complied with the transparency rules and the best practices rules."

The hearing was the second held by Waxman on the issue of executive pay, which Forbes magazine said averaged $15.2 million for the CEOs in the largest 500 U.S. companies in 2006, an increase of 38 percent in one year.

My God! Can you believe this? These fools are responsible for kicking thousands of Americans out of their homes and destroying the equity value of millions of other homes, and they think they deserved to be paid multiple millions of dollars. Personally, I think they deserve to be sharing a jail cell in a federal prison.

With the minimum wage being the unlivable pittance that it is, I don't think ANY CEO deserves to be paid this much. With salaries like this for management, is it any wonder that the cost of everything is going up? And please note, the Republicans on the committee see nothing wrong with this.

Many of these companies are laying off employees, cutting salaries and cutting benefits, but the management salaries just keep climbing into the stratosphere. It is not only wrong, it is inexcusable!

I have said before that management salaries should be tied to the worker salaries, and I still fervently believe that. For instance, the salary of a CEO should be capped at no more than 35 times that of the lowest paid worker. This would tend to rein in corporate extravagance, raise worker salaries, and help keep product prices low.

I'll probably get some people telling me this would never work and would hurt our poor corporations. But if you really believe that, then you've got your head up your ass. The Japanese already do this, and their corporations are doing very well. In fact, they are outperforming many American corporations.

Everyone, management and workers should make a decent and livable salary, but we must stop the current corporate greed. It is destroying our country.