Top executives at Charlotte-based Bank of America will take deep cuts in compensation under determinations announced Thursday by Kenneth Feinberg (right), the independent master given the task of setting pay and stock levels for officials with companies getting the most funding from the federal government.In a letter released Thursday, Feinberg cited the bank's initial pay proposals, which included a cash salary range of $700,000 to $950,000 for everyone but the CEO and stock-based salaries ranging from $2 million to $19 million for top employees who were at Bank of America in 2008 and 2009.
According to the letter, Feinberg capped cash salaries at "generally less than $500,000," with stock salaries reduced to $1.7 million to $9.3 million.
Read Feinberg's letter to Bank of America here (PDF).
You can read the letters to the other six "exceptional" companies here.
What do you think of the new pay rules introduced Thursday?
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16 comments:
How bizarre to have come to a place in American history where a president can appoint a non elected "pay czar" whose sole purpose is to dictate the maximum compensation of individuals.
Yes I understand the banks under this dictation of rule are subject to the whims of obama because of the tarp, bailout, etc...
I wonder indeed if and when these banks are "allowed" to pay back those funds, if these new regulations will become void, and the banks can go back to being entities of the free enterprise system, or if they will remain forever under state rule?
Indeed America is toeing a line into a direction most folks will wake up day and be very unhappy about, actually we have with this directive already crossed the line.
The government is now our nanny.
The ways and means of securing the wealth for obama to spread around
has become clear.
The funny thing is years, these very same banks provided "bail outs" to the small businessman and other companies who were having cash crises. They funded companies through bancrupsies so they can return on better terms. Never did these banks ever dictate to the companies they were assisting how to run their business. They inheritently knew their purpose was to be a bank and not a manufacturing company or a gas station.
Determining these companies as "Too important to fail" and then only letting the operate under huge restrictions - limitting their ability to attract or retain key personell - is just ludicrous. Do they want these companies to fail? Why bail them out in the first place?
Good. Either keep the rich from making another million or take it from them if they do. Get the money to the poor who can't afford medicine and a place to live.
Yea Mary, but nobody is proposing that. There is no upside proposal to making these "critica" companies less competitive in the job market. Let's face it. When Ken retires, BofA is forced to hire an internal candidate because NO ONE is going to come to the bank to work under the salaries and conditions they are proposing.
Does anybody know the salary of the pay Czar?
While they are cutting salaries when will Obama take a salary cut since we know under the monkeyhead Dubya he got a 100% pay raise from 200k to 400k and while we are at it America is forking out 200k a yr for all the retired presidents and this includes Carter Clinton Bush and Bush.
Cut all the retired presidents pay 50% including Obama. They are nothing special. Just a bunch of crooked politicians all of the current and past.
And why should taxpayers continue to fork out 100s of billions to retired military lazyazz slackards including officers and others annually?
Cut all the welfare. Cheney keeps running his mouth to go to war after he skipped out 5 times and on welfare with a big pension too.
No welfare. Cut all govt pay salaries. Welfare needs to be ditched for everything. No freebies. They can live in a tent and eat out trash cans.
I love this guy. Pay czar. LOL. Yall can complain all you like, but I love it that these executives are finally feeling some regulation...
Problem is, you may love it, but creating a situation where these execs (many if not most of which came in after the crises started) are no longer paid even close to market value will be encouraged to go find another job - that will pay them their millions - leaving behind a huge leadership hole at the companies they have left which will then end up returning worse financial numbers and require more layoffs and more government bailouts. That is what I want to see.
What is interesting to me Algeron and the rest who are complaining about Mr. Feinberg's decision is that you never mention the incompetence that brought this on. (By the way the term "czar" is term made up by the media and never used by President Obama. Also it is not his sole purpose to dictate anything. It's to make sure MY tax dollars aren't compensating incompetent buffonery.) These companies' indiscretions have brought our economy to the brink of disaster and you want to blame President Obama? Give me a break guy. You all also seem to have amnesia about the chief architect of this fiasco who is quieter than a "Texas church mouse" now enjoying everyone fighting it out without his name being mentioned. I applaud the President for putting his foot down. And by the way don't use ignorant terminology like whim when addressing the President's actions either sir. A whim is going into a country and losing the lives of over 3,000 soldiers based on a false premise. (I actually call that murder.) This was well thought out and I hope we continue to grab the arrogance of Wall Street by the throat. If you all don't like it here go try your corrupt behavior in Moscow and see if you even get the 500k you're complaining about...
I love how everyone loves to blame someone else. But if you followed the earnings announcements recently, you will these companies are not struggling right now because of management decisions, their consumers stopped paying their bills - due to economic conditions. 11 % default rate is what I recall BofA had. That is HUGE. They had to put 10 billion dollars away for that. How is that Wall Street's fault that Main Street is greedy and bought things without the ability to pay for it.
People love to blame Bush. Did anyone think of blaming Clinton who presided over Wallstreets greediest years in the late 90's when the deregulations took place? Of course not. Lots of blame to go around, but of course Obama deserves none of this.
Many of these execs who are being punished weren't at these companies or in these positions when these problem occurred and were brought in afterwards to "FIX" the problem. But that is who is getting punished.
When Enron, WorldCom, Alcoa etc...fell apart after years of fraud in the 90's, the government didn't come in a take over their operations, they placed new accounting rules and regulations over them, but they realized they haven't a clue how to run the companies.
So keep blaming push and smoking that medical weed. Someday, you'll wake up.
Excuse me???!!! Why would you worry that these execs will leave their current job because their ludicrous "compensation" is being slashed and find another job at that type of pay scale with another company? All of the jobs that they would be seeking for the outrageous compensation they were getting are in the same boat as the one they would be leaving! Why on earth would anyone think that these execs should be making millions upon millions of dollars every year? Are they doing something that is extraordinarily above and beyond what normal execs at other companies do to earn $100K to $500K every year? I don't think so! And on top of that, you think they should be rewarded for blowing the bailout money that Bush and Congress handed over to them on a golden platter with a big red ribbon on it, no strings attached -- on the taxpayers backs for the next 5 or 6 generations to come?? These banks are charging outlandish fees upon fees on our bank accounts and usury interest rates on their credit cards (with Congress' blessing and padded pockets!) at the main street guy's expense and detriment. Wake up America! Our politicians are selling us down the tubes and you're worried about the "leadership" of these companies not being able to earn enough to pay the rent?? You're going to wish that the bailouts never happened and that the crooked politicians let all the banks, insurance companies, and brokerage firms sink into a hole in the ground when it's all over with. What's wrong with letting companies that fail go out of business like they should. Nobody ever offered to bail me out when my company went through hard times. It's just one crooked palm greasing the next, and the ones who are going to suffer (catastrophically) will be the working stiff. Buy gold, cut up your credit cards, stock food... real bad times are ahead.
As to blame, I'm beginning to think it doesn't matter who you vote for, whether you're Republican, Democrat, Independent or something else -- all they're doing is changing faces and pushing the same agenda. They're all to blame -- way back to the early days. Check out the history of the Federal Reserve -- it is NOT a federal government entity but a private corporation, and Woodrow Wilson sold us down the tubes -- and he knew it -- when he signed the Federal Reserve Act into law. I hate to say NWO, but look at what's happening on a global scale. I was going to include a link here, but there are many. Anyone who is interested will go to Google and research "money as fiat." Do you know who Mayer Amschel Rothschild is? Here is one of his quotes: "Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes her laws."
Good luck and God Bless America -- we're going to need it!
Excuse me???!!! Why would you worry that these execs will leave their current job because their ludicrous "compensation" is being slashed and find another job at that type of pay scale with another company? All of the jobs that they would be seeking for the outrageous compensation they were getting are in the same boat as the one they would be leaving! Why on earth would anyone think that these execs should be making millions upon millions of dollars every year? Are they doing something that is extraordinarily above and beyond what normal execs at other companies do to earn $100K to $500K every year? I don't think so! And on top of that, you think they should be rewarded for blowing the bailout money that Bush and Congress handed over to them on a golden platter with a big red ribbon on it, no strings attached -- on the taxpayers backs for the next 5 or 6 generations to come?? These banks are charging outlandish fees upon fees on our bank accounts and usury interest rates on their credit cards (with Congress' blessing and padded pockets!) at the main street guy's expense and detriment. Wake up America! Our politicians are selling us down the tubes and you're worried about the "leadership" of these companies not being able to earn enough to pay the rent?? You're going to wish that the bailouts never happened and that the crooked politicians let all the banks, insurance companies, and brokerage firms sink into a hole in the ground when it's all over with. What's wrong with letting companies that fail go out of business like they should. Nobody ever offered to bail me out when my company went through hard times. It's just one crooked palm greasing the next, and the ones who are going to suffer (catastrophically) will be the working stiff. Buy gold, cut up your credit cards, stock food... real bad times are ahead.
As to blame, I'm beginning to think it doesn't matter who you vote for, whether you're Republican, Democrat, Independent or something else -- all they're doing is changing faces and pushing the same agenda. They're all to blame -- way back to the early days. Check out the history of the Federal Reserve -- it is NOT a federal government entity but a private corporation, and Woodrow Wilson sold us down the tubes -- and he knew it -- when he signed the Federal Reserve Act into law. I hate to say NWO, but look at what's happening on a global scale. I was going to include a link here, but there are many. Anyone who is interested will go to Google and research "money as fiat." Do you know who Mayer Amschel Rothschild is? Here is one of his quotes: "Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes her laws."
Good luck and God Bless America -- we're going to need it!
Are we in the USA or communist Russia?
You people are way out of line! Do you realize we pay one NFL player 1 million dollars a game to entertain us but cry when a CEO of one of Americas largest banks makes 12 million a year? Where are your priorities? How many people does an NFL player employ or manage? How many people does he effect with his decisions? No one cries foul when the Boeing 757 charter "cushy" jet shows up to shuttle players to their away games! (Or for that matter Sen Pelosi's 757 limo to California) Businesses are run to make money! Make money make jobs! Jealousy of success has NO PLACE in politics! BIG GOVERNMENT has no place in business other than legal matters! PERIOD DOT.
I think that pro sports players salaries are way out of line too -- after all, as you point out, they do not manage people or money. However, the banks do, and I believe that paying them millions to lose or hijack people's hard-earned savings is criminal! I agree that jealousy has no place in anything, but commonsense and a sense of propriety should. However, your argument would have me believe that you think these bank and big business execs should be paid for their incompetence, or, at the very least, their total disregard for the public's view that they should not be rewarded with millions of dollars in compensation and bonuses, while their companies are receiving hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer bailout money, and their performance is dismal at best. By the way, did you read the obit on the death of commonsense recently?
Food for thought, in 2000 Bill Clinton and the Republican led congress repelled the Glass-Spiegal Act which was enacted during the Great Depression to prohibit the merging of different institutions to prevent conflict of interest in investment practices. In 1982 the Garn-St Germain Act was put into place by Reagan (and a Democratic led congress) which de-regulated the Savings and Loans, which led to abuse in the mid 80s. So blaming one party or another is BS, they are both responsible for this issue; it was unmitigated greed which has brought us to this point. Regulation is not a bad word, it is a method of protection from those who would seek to abuse a system for their own profit. This is why greed is considered a cardinal sin.
I do not believe in "bail outs" or companies too big to fail. Top execs should be treated like pro golfers, perform or go home. That's the way it is in business. If, as CEO, the company performs well they should be compensated for this top job. Yes there is definitely enough blame to go around. All I ask of any elected official is follow our Constitution and your oath to it! Left or right will be American if they just do that!
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