CEOs of banks get paid
March 31st 2008 22:38
Imagine you had a job as a bank teller. Everyday, handling people's money, counting, sorting, taking deposits, accepting cheques.
Now, imagine that you've lost a lot of your customer's money. I dunno, it gets burnt up, flushed down the toilet, or just left on the counter. You'd expect to get fired. Hell, you'd probably demand to get fired.
The thing is, that you were just a bank teller. Your job is too low on the totem pole.
What if you were the branch manager, and you lost thousands and thousands of dollars? Well, you'd get fired, of course, and then probably thrown in jail.
You're still too low. You're just a little insignificant worker ant.
You want to be the CEO of a huge bank, like Northern Rock, the bankrupt British institution that has been floating on government money ever since it melted down.
The CEO of Northern Rock is Adam Applegarth, called the "chief architect of a "reckless" business model", using risky mortgage loans as redressed investment packages with fancy names. His company has lost 167 million pounds, and will not be profitable for several years, thanks to the irresponsible gamble they took.
What's his punishment? He should get fired, then arrested, no?
Ah, he doesn't work for the company, does he?
"Applegarth quit Northern Rock in December, three months after the lender was bailed out by the Bank of England."
Immediately before Northern Bank appealed to the Bank of England, Applegarth left his position. Sounds like an effective insider move. Still, at least he's poor and penniless, right? Right?
"...[Northern Rock] has agreed to pay former chief executive Adam Applegarth up to £760,000 and increase his annual pension by more than £40,000 a year to £304,000.
He also received £5,000 from the company to cover his legal bills, and continues to enjoy a discounted rate on part of his mortgage. Increased security on his home, costing between £5,000 and £10,000, was also paid by Northern Rock."
Fantastic. The company is held in public ownership, which suggests that taxpayer money will cover the losses of the company, yet Applegarth gets his near-million pound salary, as well as a raise on his pension, and a discounted mortgage. This, in a time when the mortgage crisis threatens to cause the loss of homes of the average Briton.
Today, Presidential hopeful Barack Obama made a speech about the financial bullying caused by executives of large corporations.
"These executives crossed the line to boost their bottom line. We should be reprimanding them, not rewarding them. Rewarding their bad behavior just encourages others to pursue the same kinds of irresponsible practices that led us into this financial mess in the first place."
I'll admit that I have no understanding of financial markets, and I'm not even sure what's going on in this fiasco. It just boils my blood to see these 'captains' of industry abuse the system, using the hard-earned savings of average citizens to finance risky investments, then making kitten eyes to the government when it all goes sour, but still coming off with a fat compensation package.
As a tie-in to the movies, I'd like someone to get vengeance on these CEOs. And the perfect person for vengeance is Charles Bronson in "Deathwish".
*this image is from the Guardian blog post
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