America the Beautiful. Hank hits a homerun or 198.

[Jim Nickerson]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061221/...mckinnell_dc_1

12/21/06 Former Pfizer Inc. Chief Executive Hank McKinnell will receive $198 million in total compensation after his departure in February, the company said in a filing on Thursday.

I ask, what could a guy do in 35 years (or even 135 years) during which he drew a paycheck, and on top of that at the end apparently walks away with 198 million bonars?

Isn't America beautiful and don't you love it?

This is the American dream. Hit the jackpot. Win the lotto, or is it the looto?

[Jim Nickerson]

Re: America the Beautiful. For cell texters, here's one: TEGG

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061221/...ity_gifts_dc_1

Fidelity to pay more than $42 mln in gifts probe. By Svea Herbst-Bayliss

12/21/06 "Fidelity Investments said on Thursday it will pay more than $42 million to its mutual funds after a review found that its traders had "misdirected" business to brokers who lavished them with expensive gifts."

"Investors, including the Massachusetts state pension fund, expressed concern that they may have been cheated."

"Fidelity asked John Martin, a former federal judge and U.S. attorney, to head the independent investigation and in September 2005 an economic consultant was hired to comb through trading data from the relevant period and put together a statistical analysis, the company said."

"Judge Martin concluded that it was not possible to prove statistically that traders' receipt of TEGG (travel, entertainment, gifts and gratuities) did or did not result in excessive execution costs for the funds," the trustees wrote."

"But Martin also found that certain traders misdirected order flows among brokerage firms on Fidelity's approved list."

Isn't America beautiful and don't you just love it?

[jk]

Re: America the Beautiful. Hank hits a homerun or 198.

i don't think america's got a monopoly on cupidity, crudity or stupidity, but we carry it off with such style! think of dennis kozlowski as the exemplar - the shower curtains, the umbrella stand, the party in sardinia with the ice sculpture of david urinating stolichnaya vodka! surely the only comparison is rome in the last days of empire.

[Jim Nickerson]

Re: America the Beautiful. Wall Street Bonuses

Taken from Alan Abelson's column, Barron's 12/25/06, a quote by Marc Faber in email to Abelson, "the 173,000 employees of the five largest U.S. brokerage firms earn a bonus of $36 billion, which is larger than half of Vietnam's GDP with 84 million people."

That is BONUS and BIILIONS. Looking more closely it is only an average of 208,000 bonars bonus per person, but considering inflation it is not that big of a deal. Look at your bonus for the year, if you got one.

Hope it stacks up and everyone has a happy holiday and a profitable year in 2007.

[Jim Nickerson]

Re: America the Beautiful. Hank hits a homerun or 198.

From Richard Russell Dow Theory Letters, Inc.

12/26/06

"Goldman Sachs is preparing to hand out $16.5 billion this year in bonuses to its employees -- this comes to $625,000 for every man and woman at Goldman. Of course, the money won't be distributed evenly, but any way you look at it, $16.5 billion is a lot of moola to distribute. What I find so interesting is that the US today isn't producing oodles of profits from any particular manufacturing industry, the real money is being generated by the takeover and merger and acquisition guys, and the traders and the hedge-fund managers. Of course, the gaming casinos are not far behind. So be it, as Alan Greenspan said a few years back, "If we lose manufacturing, maybe we'll find something else to take its place." And sure enough we did -- it's called money-shuffling."

Don't overlook the fact these are BONUSES, that is in addition to what likely are paltry monthly paychecks.

[DemonD]

Re: America the Beautiful. Hank hits a homerun or 198.

Just want to put my own non-bearish spin on the Hank McKinnell story. Pfizer's new CEO does not have anywhere near the compensation package McKinnell did.

[Jim Nickerson]

Re: America the Beautiful. Bobby Nardelli--200 bagger.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/stor...o&dist=myyahoo

1/3/07
CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- "Home Depot Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Robert Nardelli resigned unexpectedly Wednesday after a tumultuous string of high-profile tussles with investors over his hefty pay package, corporate governance issues and shifts in corporate strategy."

"The departure, described as "mutually agreed" to, came with a hefty $210 million severance package for Nardelli."

"He was immediately replaced by Vice Chairman Frank Blake.."

Frank said, "Okay, Bobby, how about letting someone have a swing for the fences?"

[Finster]

Re: America the Beautiful. Bobby Nardelli--200 bagger.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/stor...o&dist=myyahoo

1/3/07
CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- "Home Depot Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Robert Nardelli resigned unexpectedly Wednesday after a tumultuous string of high-profile tussles with investors over his hefty pay package, corporate governance issues and shifts in corporate strategy."

"The departure, described as "mutually agreed" to, came with a hefty $210 million severance package for Nardelli."

"He was immediately replaced by Vice Chairman Frank Blake.."

Frank said, "Okay, Bobby, how about letting someone have a swing for the fences?"

Jim, I had hoped you would put this one in your cross-hairs, and you did not disappoint.

From all appearances, there is little to suggest Mr. Nardelli is not entitled to this bonanza of a severance package. Analysts have pointed out that the contract with which he was recruited six years ago set out its terms. What baffles me is why even as Nardelli's name has popped up in the media untold thousands of times in the past few days, the names of the directors which negotiated and approved this whopper are conspicuous by their absence.

Shareholders should be calling for their heads.

[Jim Nickerson]

Re: America the Beautiful. Bobby Nardelli--200 bagger.

their absence.

Shareholders should be calling for their heads.

That no heads are rolling I believe is because shareholders are, as are voters in politics, a feckless bunch. The leaders are organized, those led are not. Who cares if Bobby makes more money that one could spend in 50 lifetimes as long as the little man makes a few bonars or even doubles his small allocation in Home Depot?

[Finster]

Re: America the Beautiful. Bobby Nardelli--200 bagger.

That no heads are rolling I believe is because shareholders are, as are voters in politics, a feckless bunch. The leaders are organized, those led are not. Who cares if Bobby makes more money that one could spend in 50 lifetimes as long as the little man makes a few bonars or even doubles his small allocation in Home Depot?

Sad but true. There is a ray of hope on the horizon, though. Barney Frank, the new committee head with jurisidiction in the matter, has publicly stated he wants to give shareholders more say on executive compensation. He wants to make exec pay packages more understandable to shareholders as well.

I have no problem with paying someone whatever the market believes they are worth. But this is not the market doing the paying - execs are paying themselves. They have far too much say in who is on the board and that results in a fox-guarding-the-henhouse situation. The cronyism between boards and managements is where the problem lies. Boards are supposed to represent shareholders, not managements. When they return to fulfilling their proper function, execs will get paid what they are really worth.

[Jim Nickerson]

Re: America the Beautiful. Bobby Nardelli--200 bagger.

When they return to fulfilling their proper function, execs will get paid what they are really worth.

Don't hold your breath waiting for "when."

[Finster]

Re: America the Beautiful. Bobby Nardelli--200 bagger.

Don't hold your breath waiting for "when."

Am I turning blue yet? ;)

... nevertheless, more may get done sooner given the very high degree of publicity this has been getting. My main concern is that the real issue gets lost amid the confusion of politics. There has been some talk about "labor" getting a bigger share of the economic prosperity "capital" supposedly has been getting. This class-warfare codswallop may get traction just because of demagoguery, but the premise couldn't be further from the truth.

Most people, including working people, are now owners of capital, whether through the IRA, 401k, pension plan, or whatever. And people like McKinnell and Nardelli do not primarily represent capital, but the top echelon of labor. Considering that the stock market has gone a big fat net nowhere for the past seven years, it's hard to argue that it's been capital that's been cashing in big time here.

[Jim Nickerson]

Re: America the Beautiful. Companies trim perks.

You want "ridiculous" Read the entire article.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1168...o_itp&ru=yahoo

Companies Trim
Executive Perks
To Avoid Glare
Jet Rides, Club Dues
On Chopping Block
As SEC Rules Kick In
By ERIN WHITE and JOANN S. LUBLIN
January 13, 2007; Page A1

On Jan. 1, Exxon Mobil Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp. stopped paying executives' country-club dues. In December, directors of General Mills Inc. capped free personal rides on company aircraft for its chief executive officer. And E*Trade Financial Corp. said it no longer would help top executives pay taxes on their severance benefits if the company is sold.

The changes come amid sweeping new Securities and Exchange Commission requirements for additional disclosure about executive pay and perks. The rules, which took effect for fiscal years ending after Dec. 14, require companies to reveal perks for top executives that add up to $10,000 or more apiece; the old rules required disclosure of perks valued above $50,000.

Perks coming under greater scrutiny include country-club dues, company cars, private use of corporate jets, financial-planning services and instances where companies pay executives to cover those officials' tax payments due on other compensation. Many such items typically aren't very costly, but can attract shareholder protests.

They are also fairly common. A Mercer study of proxies last year found that 55% of 350 large companies said they allow personal use of company aircraft. About 50% said they paid for financial counseling, 43% for company cars, and 27% paid club dues, the study indicated.

In fact, executives don't necessarily lose in these new arrangements. Compensation consultants expect many companies to increase other forms of compensation to make up for the lost perks.
Becton, Dickinson and Co., for example, raised CEO Edward Ludwig's salary $4,000, to $994,000, after eliminating a financial-planning perk in 2005, which had cost the Franklin Lakes, N.J., medical-technology company as much as $9,000.

Lockheed Martin said in an SEC filing that it gave executives a "one-time salary adjustment" after cutting benefits including country-club dues and financial counseling. On Dec. 1, CEO Robert Stevens got a $40,000 raise in his base salary, to $1.52 million. Robert Coutts, Lockheed's executive vice president for electronic systems, got a $25,000 raise, to $850,000. A Lockheed spokesman declined to comment on whether the changes were prompted by the new SEC rules, but noted that "perks have received increased scrutiny."

Some companies had been chipping away at perks even before the SEC rules surfaced. Becton, Dickinson in October 2005 stopped reimbursing top executives for personal financial-planning services. In December 2005, it struck an agreement with Mr. Ludwig under which he reimburses the company for most of the cost of his personal use of company aircraft. Becton, Dickinson said the changes were prompted by efforts to improve corporate governance.

More perks have been disappearing in recent months, as the broader disclosures required by the new rules draw nearer. Exxon Mobil directors dropped the country-club dues perk because they decided it looked silly when executives earn enough to foot those bills themselves, according to a person familiar with the matter. Former CEO Lee R. Raymond was reimbursed $67,035 for membership fees in 2005, according to Exxon Mobil's most recent proxy. A spokesman declined to comment on whether the change, which took effect Jan. 1, was influenced by the new rules.

In December, General Mills began to require that Chief Executive Stephen W. Sanger reimburse the company for personal use of corporate aircraft beyond $50,000 per year; Mr. Sanger's perk used to be unlimited. His personal use of company aircraft was valued at $73,001 in the company's 2006 fiscal year, according to an SEC filing. A spokesman says directors approved the change, proposed by Mr. Sanger. The CEO "felt that there should be a cap," says spokesman Thomas Forsythe. He says the change wasn't prompted by the new SEC rules.

[Jim Nickerson]

Re: America the Beautiful. Re. FORD--Built Tough

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070118/...ord_plane_dc_1

Ford executive gives up use of jet after criticism 1/18/07

Mark Fields, Ford's president of the Americas, had been granted personal use of a company jet under the terms of an employment contract signed when he took over responsibility for Ford's restructuring in late 2005.

Fields trips from Detroit to his home in Florida became controversial in recent weeks after the provision in his contract was highlighted by a Detroit television station and challenged at a time when the automaker is losing billions and slashing jobs.

The cost of flying Fields for the fourth quarter of 2005 was $214,479, according to a proxy statement filed by Ford with the Securities and Exchange Commission in April. The automaker has not yet disclosed the cost for 2006.

Fields is overseeing a restructuring that calls for the closing of 16 plants and cutting of nearly 45,00O workers.

Ford lost $7 billion during the first nine months of 2006 and further losses are forecast in the October-December period quarter and beyond.

By Ford's own estimate, its North American unit will lose money until 2009 and run through $17 billion cash in the next three years.

I keep trying to think of appropriate comments to make on this stuff, but I continue to be at a loss for words.

[Jim Nickerson]

Re: America the Beautiful. Hank hits a homerun or 198.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070407/...oleum_pay_dc_1

Actually it seems Hank only hit a double.

4/7/07

Occidental CEO got more than $400 million in 2006

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE:OXY - news) Chairman and Chief Executive Ray Irani took in more than $400 million in compensation in 2006, according to a company filing, one of the biggest single-year payouts in U.S. corporate history.

When it comes to bullshit, I think this is getting to be about as close as it comes to being pure.