Halloween Horror! Seven CEOs to Face Paycuts [1]
Submitted by Mary Bottari [2] on
According to the Wall Street Journal, federal "pay czar" Kenneth Feinberg [3] will order seven bailed out financial institutions and auto companies to cut their compensation packages for top officers by 25%-50%. According to one professor interviewed, this represents a "seismic shift" in corporate governance. The seven companies are Citigroup [4], Bank of America [5], General Motors [6], Chrysler, GMAC, Chrysler Financial and AIG [7]. These firms have received a total of about $250 billion in bailout funds from the federal Troubled Assets Relief Program [8] (TARP). Missing are the other bailed out firms, such as Goldman Sachs [9], which benefited from the taxpayer lifeline, but has paid back TARP funds. Earlier this month, Feinberg formally approved the salary and compensation package of AIG's Robert Benmoche at $10.5 million. How will Benmoche and friends survive? Perhaps they can get some advice from the thousands of workers at these firms who lost their jobs this year.