Pay for United CEO Jeff Smisek jumps to USD$14.7 million from USD$4.4 million

the obscenity of executive compensation is truly staggering...

Compensation for Jeff Smisek, chief executive of United Continental Holdings, surged in 2011, reflecting greater responsibilities after a 2010 merger that created the world's largest airline, according to a filing.
Total compensation rose to USD$14.7 million last year from USD$4.4 million the previous year, the company said in a proxy statement on Friday.

Much of the increase came from a USD$7.5 million stock award that vests over three years and is subject to performance goals including revenue and cost synergies from the merger of United and Continental Airlines, according to the filing.

Smisek was also awarded USD$4.4 million non-equity incentive compensation. About USD$2.4 million of that was payment for years 2009-2011 that was earned in 2011 and based partly on Continental's performance before the October 2010 merger.

even more staggering is that it comes on top of a $400M loss in the last quarter...

The parent of United Airlines reported a first-quarter loss that more than doubled from a year ago thanks to costs related to integrating Continental Airlines.

United Continental Holdings said it had a $448 million net loss, or a $1.36 loss per share, in the first three months of the year, not as bad as analysts expected.

Excluding $162 million in charges mainly linked to the integration costs, the loss amounted to $286 million, or 87 cents per share, UAL said. The Wall Street average estimate was for a $1.03 loss per share.

since i used to work at united, i know first-hand just how much the officers are focused on themselves and their own personal gains... i've already been "treated" to the "new" united and, believe me, it's no improvement... in fact, quite the contrary...

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Citigroup - suck on this, Vikram Pandit

any pushback on the criminal bankers is welcome...

from the nyt...

Citigroup Shareholders Reject Executive Pay Plan

Citigroup’s shareholders rejected the bank’s plan to award its chief executive, Vikram S. Pandit, $15 million in compensation, in a show of frustration about Wall Street pay.

At the bank’s annual meeting Tuesday in Dallas, a majority of investors voted against a proposal on executive compensation, which included approving Mr. Pandit’s pay package.

The advisory vote comes amid widespread furor over Wall Street pay. At a time when profits and stocks are slumping, bank chiefs are collecting multimillion-dollar payouts.

Last year, Mr. Pandit’s compensation included a $1.67 million salary and a $5.3 million cash bonus. In addition, he received a retention package valued at $40 million. In 2009 with the bank on the edge of failure, Mr. Pandit accepted only a $1 salary.

unfortunately, the shareholder vote is not binding...

Citi doesn’t have to act on the vote, which isn’t binding. Still, it speaks to shareholders’ issues. Only 45 percent of shareholders supported the plan.

“Citi’s board of directors takes the shareholder vote seriously, and along with senior management will consult with representative shareholders to understand their concerns,” said Jon Diat, a spokesman for Citi.

too bad they can't take the 99% seriously...

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The rich live in a foreign country at the top of the world at heights so rarified they can't imagine life down below

bill moyers and michael winship expound on the old saw, "the rich are different from you and me"...

from truthout...

Top hedge fund managers collectively earned $14.4 billion last year." No wonder some of them are fighting to kill a provision in the recent Dodd-Frank reform law that would require disclosing the ratio of CEO pay to the median pay of their employees. One never wishes to upset the help, you know. It can lead to unrest.

That's Wall Street - the metaphorical bestiary of the financial universe. But there's nothing metaphorical about the earnings of hedge fund tigers, private equity lions and the top dogs at those big banks that were bailed out by tax dollars after they helped chase our economy off a cliff.

So, what do these big moneyed nabobs have to complain about? Why are they whining about reform? And why are they funneling cash to super PACs aimed at bringing down Barack Obama, who many of them supported four years ago?

Because, writes Alec MacGillis in The New Republic - the president wants to raise their taxes. That's right - while ordinary Americans are taxed at a top rate of 35 percent on their income, Congress allows hedge fund and private equity tycoons to pay only 15 percent of their compensation. The president wants them to pay more; still at a rate below what you might pay, and for that he's being accused of - hold onto your combat helmets - "class warfare."

[...]

To add insult to injury, average taxpayers even help subsidize the private jet travel of the rich. On the Times' DealBook blog, mergers and acquisitions expert Steven Davidoff writes, "If an outside security consultant determines that executives need a private jet and other services for their safety, the Internal Revenue Service cuts corporate chieftains a break. In such cases, the chief executive will pay a reduced tax bill or sometimes no tax at all."

Are the CEOs really in danger? No, says Davidoff, "It's a common corporate tax trick."

Talk about your friendly skies. No wonder the people with money and influence don't feel connected to the rest of the population. It's as if they live in a foreign country at the top of the world, like their own private Switzerland, at heights so rarified they can't imagine life down below.

even in my asset-free and spartan, bare-bones lifestyle, i'm well aware that i lead a relatively privileged existence compared to many in the u.s. and certainly to the vast majority of those i encounter in my travels to other countries... but, even at that, the gap between how i live and how our super-rich elites live is so vast that i can barely comprehend it... while one of these stratospheric fliers might have pieds-à-terre in the south of france, in manhattan, in pebble beach and somewhere in the caribbean, mine consist of a room in my son's house, an ever-available guest room with a friend and colleague in central america, and my "mobile apartment," a 5th wheel rv - all very low overhead... HA...!

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Speaking of the greed of the 1%, let's hear it for Jamie Dimon and his fellow bailed out banksters

hard on the heels of the story about bank of america ceo brian moynihan's $8.1M pay...

Dimon’s $23m trumps pay of US bank rivals

Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, earned $23.1m in total compensation last year, an 11 per cent increase over 2011, a higher level than the heads of the other large US banks.

In its annual report, JPMorgan said Mr Dimon received $1.4m in salary, a bonus of $4.5m and $17m in stock and options. John Stumpf, chief executive of Wells Fargo, earned $19.8m, while Citigroup’s Vikram Pandit earned $14.9m.

untrammeled greed... ya gotta love it...

Big Bank Profile: JPMorgan Chase

Federal taxpayer bailout received:	$94.7 billion
Lobbying fees in 9 months after bailout:	$4.2 million
Campaign contributions in 2008 federal elections:	$6.0 million
Profits for 1998-2008:	$97.6 billion
Profits for the first half of 2009:	$4.86 billion
Bank fees for first half of 2009:	$3.45 billion
Change in bank account fees (2003-08):	+249.5%
Percent of first half 2009 profit from fees:	71%
Credit card income for first half of 2009:	$3.56 billion
Median JPMorgan Chase bank teller wage:	$10.58/hour or $22,006 annually
2008 CEO Jamie Dimon pay:	$19.7 million (893 times median teller wage)
2008 bonus pool:	$8.7 billion
First half 2009 bonus and compensation pool:	$14.5 billion
Cash bonuses (top 5 execs) last 10 years:	$254.9 million
Effective tax rate in 2008:	-33.4%
Offshore subsidiaries in tax havens:	53

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It's good to be a (Bank of America) banksta

at a time when bank of america is widely seen as one of the most voracious plunderers in the world, how can its ceo allow this to happen...? oh, wait... it's going in to his own pocket... well, how can the board of directors allow it to happen...? how can the shareholders allow it to happen...? how can we as citizens allow it to happen...?

Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan's pay quadruples

In a year when Bank of America’s stock plunged 58% and the company announced plans to lay off 30,000 employees, chief executive Brian Moynihan’s compensation package more than quadrupled to nearly $8.1 million.

Here’s why: In 2011, the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank recorded $1.4 billion in profit after losing $2.2 billion the year before. So far this year, the stock is up more than 70%.

So although the bank’s compensation and benefits committee kept Moynihan’s salary the same at $950,000, he also landed $6.1 million in performance-reliant stock. Then there’s the $420,000 worth of tax and financial advice, along with use of the company’s aircraft, that’s also part of his package.

Along with various other components, Moynihan will have made nearly 317% more last year than the $1.9 million he pulled in during 2010, according to a BofA filing Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

yes, that's the bank of america ceo collecting almost 4 times what he collected the previous year, the ceo who heads a bank about which matt taibbi says this...

Matt Taibbi: Bank of America Is a “Raging Hurricane of Theft and Fraud”

There are two things every American needs to know about Bank of America.

The first is that it's corrupt. This bank has systematically defrauded almost everyone with whom it has a significant business relationship, cheating investors, insurers, homeowners, shareholders, depositors, and the state. It is a giant, raging hurricane of theft and fraud, spinning its way through America and leaving a massive trail of wiped-out retirees and foreclosed-upon families in its wake.

The second is that all of us, as taxpayers, are keeping that hurricane raging. Bank of America is not just a private company that systematically steals from American citizens: it's a de facto ward of the state that depends heavily upon public support to stay in business. In fact, without the continued generosity of us taxpayers, and the extraordinary indulgence of our regulators and elected officials, this company long ago would have been swallowed up by scandal, mismanagement, prosecution and litigation, and gone out of business. It would have been liquidated and its component parts sold off, perhaps into a series of smaller regional businesses that would have more respect for the law, and be more responsive to their customers.

i guess it's time to revive my post from last november, an ows spoof on the Geto Boys’ 1992 song “Damn it feels good to be a gangsta”...

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America's top bosses enjoyed pay hikes of between 27 and 40% last year

and people still have the nerve to ask what it is that has people in the occupy movement so upset...

via alternet...

America's top bosses enjoyed pay hikes of between 27 and 40% last year, according to the largest survey of US CEO pay. The dramatic bounceback comes as the latest government figures show wages for the majority of Americans are failing to keep up with inflation.

America's highest paid executive took home more than $145.2m, and as stock prices recovered across the board, the median value of bosses' profits on stock options rose 70% in 2010, from $950,400 to $1.3m.

when i think about how little it takes me to get by especially in comparison to these grossly overpaid toads, i see red... i've worked with some of these senior guys and i can tell you, their vastly over-inflated opinion of themselves is the only thing that compares in size to their vastly over-inflated compensation...

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Two international views of OWS, one from Germany and the other from IPS

first, ips... pay particular attention to the quote in the last paragraph...

Occupy Times Square by Christian Papesch from IPS Inter Press Service on Vimeo.

More than a month old, OWS feels like a town of its own, one governed intentionally by institutions and actions based on empathetic, egalitarian principles. As a protest, the occupation tactic is successful because of its constant presence and as a base for organising actions.

But at least as important to participants is the opportunity the occupied space provides to organise a microcosm of the society they want to live in. As the movement continues to grow, it is clear that this new society resonates with many people disaffected with the failures of society at large.

"We're dismantling capitalism and building something better right here," said Sheik.

here's a view from germany's spiegel [emphases added]...

Has America Become an Oligarchy?

Inequality in America is greater than it has been in almost a century. Those fortunate enough to belong to the 1 percent, made up of the super-rich, stand on one side of the divide; the remaining 99 percent on the other. Even for a country that has always accepted opposite extremes as part of its identity, the chasm has simply grown too vast.

Those who succeed in the US are congratulated rather than berated. Resenting other people's wealth is viewed as supporting class struggle, which is something very frowned upon.

Still, statistics indicate that the growing disparity is genuinely overwhelming. In fact, the 400 wealthiest Americans now own more than the "lower" 150 million Americans put together.

Nearly two-thirds of net private assets are concentrated in the hands of 5 percent of Americans. In comparison, the upper 5 percent of Germany hold less than half of net assets. In 2009 alone, at the same time as the US was being convulsed by mass layoffs, the number of millionaires in the country skyrocketed.

Indeed, if you look at the reports it compiles on every country in the world, even the CIA has concluded that wealth disparity is greater in the US than in Tunisia or Egypt.

[...]

At least since the beginning of the millennium, it has no longer been a simple matter of two societal extremes drifting further apart. Instead, the development is also accelerating. In the years of economic growth between 2002 and 2007, 65 percent of the income gains went to the top 1 percent of taxpayers. Likewise, although the productivity of the US economy has increased considerably since the beginning of the millennium, most Americans haven't benefited from it, with average annual incomes falling by more than 10 percent, to $49,909 (€35,184).

[...]

In 1980, American CEOs earned 42 times more than the average employee. Today, that figure has skyrocketed to more than 300 times. Last year, 25 of the country's highest-paid CEOs earned more than their companies paid in taxes.

By way of comparison, top executives at the 30 blue-chip companies making up Germany's DAX stock market index rarely earn over 100 times the salaries of their low-level employees, and that figure is often around 30 or 40 times.

nothing new here but still interesting to see how what's going on here is perceived from outside the country...

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Why should corporations pay taxes and invest in the common good...? Their CEOs are the ones who deserve the money... Right...?

is this a great country or what...?

Twenty-five major US firms paid more to their chief executives than to federal tax collectors in 2010, with most of the companies receiving tax refunds, a liberal-leaning think tank said Wednesday.

The study by the Institute for Policy Studies comes ahead of another expected round of fierce partisan bickering over whether the debt-laden United States should raise taxes on the wealthy and close loopholes to boost revenues.

The 25 CEOs -- many from well-known companies like General Electric, Verizon, Boeing and eBay -- were among the 100 highest paid chief executives in the United States, with 2010 pay averaging $16.7 million, the report said.

And 22 of the 25 had received pay increases that year.

The 25 firms reported average global profits of $1.9 billion, and 18 of them operated subsidiaries in offshore tax havens, the report said.

"Corporations don't dodge taxes. The people who run corporations do. And these people -- America's CEOs -- are reaping awesomely lavish rewards for the tax dodging they have their corporations do," the institute said.

greed... it's what's for breakfast, lunch AND dinner...

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Another Goldman news story that makes the fraud charge look like an empty gesture

$3.46 BILLION in ONE QUARTER...? oh, gag me with a spoon...

Goldman Tops Forecast, With $3.46 Billion in Earnings

Earnings for the Wall Street giant rose 91 percent in the first quarter of 2010, to $3.46 billion or $5.59 a share, up from $1.81 billion or $3.39 a share in the same period last year. Revenues increased 36 percent to $12.78 billion, up from $9.42 billion in the quarter a year ago.

Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had expected revenue of $11.05 billion and earnings of $4.14 a share.

never mind those with mortgage foreclosures... never mind those with no jobs... our super-rich, elite masters continue to rake it in and justify it with b.s. like this...

Dushyant Shahrawat, a senior research director for TowerGroup, said the results reflected the depths to which Goldman had fallen during the financial crisis. “Things had fallen off the cliff so badly that frankly the only way from there was up,” he said.

oh, and fair warning to anyone who stands in the way...

Going forward, Goldman should profit from fast-paced growth in overseas markets, Mr. Shahrawat said, but it also may face new pressures like financial regulation and questions about its reputation.

and, just in case you still think $3.46 BILLION is a lot of money, think again...

“Unless the Dow goes to 14,000 anytime soon, the revenues are not going to blow the barn doors off,” Mr. Shahrawat said.

what a load of bollocks...

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The super-rich elites are intent on making serfs out of all of us

i suppose at one time, back many years ago before i wised-up, i fantasized about being a member of the elite community of the super-rich... it took me a while to "get it," that the more money i have, the more possessions i have, the more i'm "owned"...

i think it's the sad delusion of our times to believe that wealth brings either freedom or happiness... what i think it brings is a slavish devotion to the system that provides such riches... after all, why in the world would you ever want to bite the hand that feeds you...? and so, in order to keep your riches intact, in order to keep the pump pumping, you have to - metaphorically - close the door behind you, keep out the riffraff, make sure you never have to risk losing anything... the mindset this produces is, in many ways, limited, constrained, selfish, inwardly focused and willfully ignorant...

i find a great deal of freedom in being "asset-free" and, needless to say, even more so by being debt-free... do i need income...? of course... do i need to pay bills...? of course... do i want to maintain some level of comfort in my living conditions...? of course... do i want some resources to help me enjoy myself...? certainly... but i know that if anybody were to carefully scrutinize my income, bank accounts and expenses, they would be amazed i am able to live like i do on so little... speaking for myself, i find it very fulfilling to be able to do so...

however, with all that said, it would be a serious mistake not to understand that all of us who are the bedrock of the economic system that supports the super-rich elites are under attack... the greed of those people is boundless and if it means robbing us at gunpoint, they won't hesitate to do it... they not only won't hesitate, they are already doing it...

david degraw...

The Economic Elite have escalated their attack on US workers over the past few years, however, this attack began to build intensity in the 1970s. In 1970, CEOs made $25 for every $1 the average worker made. Due to technological advancements, production and profit levels exploded from 1970 - 2000. With the lion's share of increased profits going to the CEO's, this pay ratio dramatically rose to $90 for CEOs to $1 for the average worker.

As ridiculous as that seems, an in-depth study in 2004 on the explosion of CEO pay revealed that, including stock options and other benefits, CEO pay is more accurately $500 to $1.

Paul Buchheit, from DePaul University, revealed, "From 1980 to 2006 the richest 1% of America tripled their after-tax percentage of our nation's total income, while the bottom 90% have seen their share drop over 20%." Robert Freeman added, "Between 2002 and 2006, it was even worse: an astounding three-quarters of all the economy's growth was captured by the top 1%."

Due to this, the United States already had the highest inequality of wealth in the industrialized world prior to the financial crisis. Since the crisis, which has hit the average worker much harder than CEO's, the gap between the top one percent and the remaining 99% of the US population has grown to a record high. The economic top one percent of the population now owns over 70% of all financial assets, an all time record.

my point is this... even for someone like me, someone who gets by on very little, it's time to accept the hard truth... we are being pushed ever harder to crawl into a little box and stay there... our handlers don't want us to be free, they don't want us to be told the truth, they don't want us to be able to make informed decisions, they don't want us to be able to travel freely, they don't want us to do anything but line up dutifully to be their good little consumers... the best thing we can do is act free, learn the truth, make informed decisions, travel freely and stop lining up to toss our money at them 24/7...

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Hard-core greed porn: $145B Wall Street payout - 18% MORE than last year

obscenity rises to new heights...

In 1964, Justice Potter Stewart tried to explain "hard-core" pornography, or what is obscene, by saying, "I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced . . . [b]ut I know it when I see it . . . "

well, see THIS...

Wall Street’s payout for 2009: $145 billion

If you still needed statistical proof that the folks on Wall Street have become entirely detached from reality in the wake of the massive taxpayer-funded bailout of their colossal mistakes, here it is.

The 38 largest financial institutions on Wall Street will pay out a total of $145.85 billion in compensation for 2009, an 18 percent increase over 2008 and "slightly more than in the record year of 2007," the Wall Street Journal reports.

(By "slightly," the Journal means a 6 percent increase over 2007, amounting to some $8 billion.)

Contrast this with the state of affairs on Main Street, where average earnings increased 2.2 percent in 2009 -- and that number excludes the 7 million jobs lost since the recession began.

over 1 BILLION people around the world don't get enough to eat... innocents are being slaughtered in afghanistan and pakistan... many tens of thousands are dead or dying in haiti... yet our super-rich elites continue to bleed the world of its riches for their own coffers... every day i say to myself, this cannot stand, and every day it continues to stand...

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Goldman shareholders get to offer a NONBINDING vote on exec's compensation?

woo-hoo...

Moving to quell the uproar over the return of big paydays on Wall Street, Goldman Sachs announced on Thursday that its top executives would forgo cash bonuses this year and that it would give shareholders a say in determining compensation.

With a resurgent Goldman set to award billions of dollars in bonuses — a trove that could rival the record payouts of the bubble years — the bank said that its 30 most-senior executives would be paid in the form of a special stock, rather than in cash. Goldman said that it would also let its shareholders vote on its executives’ pay, although the decision would be nonbinding.

hold me up and fan me quick... like this is going to "quell the uproar"...? those at the pinnacle of the pyramid, that tiny, elite, super-rich group of flabby-ass white guys who basically set the agenda for the entire planet are worried about "quelling an uproar"...? i think they ought to be worried for their sorry skins...

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Compounded obscenity - exec. comp. up 38%, average Joe, 4%

if we want to talk about obscenity, HERE'S obscenity...

Forbes, in releasing its survey late Thursday, said the CEOs of America's 500 biggest companies got a collective 38 percent pay raise last year, to 7.5 billion dollars, or an average 15.2 million dollars.

Exercised stock options accounted for the main component of pay, or about 48 percent, Forbes said.

Exercised stock options accounted for the main component of pay, or about 48 percent, Forbes said.

Number two on the list was Occidental Petroleum's Ray Irani with 321.6 million dollars, followed by Barry Diller at InterActive Corp (295 million), Fidelity National's William Foley (179 million) and Terry Semel of Yahoo (174 million).

Michael Dell, who retook the reins at Dell Computer, was sixth with a compensation package worth 153 million dollars.

how about the poor slobs who have to actually WORK for a living...?

Sibson Consulting reports that most employers "anticipate a less-than-4-percent base pay increase" for the vast majority of their workers in 2007 - about the same as in the past few years. For someone earning $40,000 a year, a pay hike of 3 to 4 percent works out to as little as $100 per month before taxes...

even someone as math-challenged as i am can figure out that 38% of $200M is a considerably higher figure than 4% of $40K...

like i said, there's obscenity, then there's OBSCENITY...

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