Realizing that executive pay has a lot to do with executive retention, the US government’ pay czar has approved a compensation package worth nearly $5 million for a top executive at AIG.
A top executive of American International Group has been granted a $4.3 million pay-package bump by the troubled insurance giant’s majority owner — the U.S. government — because the executive has decided to remain with the company. Kenneth Feinberg, the Obama administration’s pay czar, approved an AIG request to grant the executive a long-term compensation package that includes stock options with a current value of $3.26 million and an additional incentive award of up to $1 million. The package comes on top of the executive’s 2009 base salary of $450,000… The executive had been planning to leave the company and had not been granted long-term compensation benefits.
While many people have criticized executive pay, and despite government intrusion in such decisions for bailed out companies, the market typically drives such decisions. In this case, the executive in questions would have left AIG, and tekne his expertise with him, unless he was given comparable pay. The free market still works, even in the face of government meddling.
Most of the news out of DC today concerns lots and lots of money – Your money, my money, our money, your neighbors money. The House approved a $1.1 trillion spending bill without any GOP votes. It’s not clear whether the Senate will have the 60 votes necessary to shove the massive spending bill through the chamber.
The 1,088-page, $1.1 trillion measure would provide $447 billion in operating budgets for 10 Cabinet departments, awarding increases averaging almost 10 percent. On top of that comes more than $600 billion in payments for federal benefit programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.
The 221-202 vote to approve the House-Senate compromise bill sends it to the Senate, which immediately voted 56-43 to begin debate. That tally could mean trouble for the bill since it is less than the 60 votes needed to break a GOP filibuster.
In addition, after promising that we wouldn’t lose money as a result of the bailouts, the Treasury is now telling us we’ll need to spend more money to be able to stop spending money, and, oh yeah, we probably won’t get al that money back after all.
The Iranian people’s peaceful struggle for freedom continues despite the tyrannical regime’s barbarous crackdown. In fact, in his Friday’s sermon, former President Rafsanjani called into question the legitimacy of the present government and rebuked the regime for its crackdown on peaceful protesters and its cavalier rejection of the cries that the election was stolen.
Finally, former [...]
When we celebrate the Fourth of July this weekend with our parades, fireworks and barbecues, we should all take a moment to think about what is happening in Iran.
During the past couple weeks, the world has been watching in horror as the religious-based government of Iran has violently cracked down on its own people in [...]
From the hellish streets where Iranians demand freedom, voices arise to pray for deliverance and liberty; but, elsewhere, safely ensconced in freedom, others argue for appeasement and “neutrality.” We must choose wisely between these competing voices and visions, lest we betray our allegiance to liberty.
Some voices allege America’s support of Iranian democracy demonstrators harms their [...]
