WASHINGTON (AP) — Less than a week after the federal government had to bail out American International Group Inc., the company sent executives on a $440,000 retreat to a posh California resort, lawmakers investigating the company's meltdown said Tuesday. The tab included $23,380 worth of spa treatments for AIG employees at the coastal St. Regis resort south of Los Angeles even as the company tapped into an $85 billion loan from the government it needed to stave off bankruptcy.
Well said....and that comes to mind every time someone says we need to pay all those exorbitant millions to these guys just to attract their kind of leadership "talent".. ..ah hem... Not only are these guys scumbags but they are the best at being con men you have ever seen......except for someone I once knew. This guy was a total loser I once was an acquaintance of when we were both in our mid to late 20s. Both of us were salesmen in similar jobs but then this guy hooks up with a headhunter who sold him as a "talented" managerial type who got him hired by some firm to be a Regional Sales Mgr. This went on for about a year until the headhunter...who was the real salesman in the deal...sold the the guy off as worthy of a VP of Sales for some other company by the time he was 30 years old. This lasted about another year....long enough for him to just about wear out his welcome I assume and then the headhunter landed a President's position of a company in his industry at about age 32. Once there you can bet he had a golden parachute deal....stock options...etc... so even after he was fired a year and half later he not only had the resume going for another high paying job but his bank and stock portfolio were swelling to great numbers not to mention his palatial home in Ct. All along....this was the same schmuck I knew....a total alcoholic loser. This is a true story by the way...... A few years later his wife, who my wife and I knew very well turned butch lesbian...left him and their three kids and he was out of his industry out of a job....but richer for all of his foibles and that of the brainless people who hired him along the way.
They, without question, made a very poor decision. I was unaware that you knew these men.....you obviously have inside information to be able to make such an authoritative, informed judgement. As it relates to compensation, the notion that you as an owner of a company can attract top-flight talent - I assume you want a talented leader for your company - without providing a total compensation package attractive enough to incent said leader to risk leaving his current situation is contrary to basic human behavior. Best of luck in your efforts to attract top flight management to lead your firm.
Seems to me that upper management of any firm promotes this kind of overpaying. I can see it. I hope that every other account manager in my office makes a zillion bucks because how could I expect to get highly paid if I didn't have company at that pay scale? If everyone else took a big pay cut I would know my turn is coming. Executive salaries aren't voted on by the guy on the line....they are voted on by the guy next in line.
Nonsense......they are in fact voted on by the people that own the company.....because it's their money.
Just my 2 cents but... This is what is wrong with buyouts and government backing/saving companies that are dying. If the market isn't allowed to cleanse itself, the evils will continue. Of course, if the government doesn't come bail these people out then Dave would be grousing that the Fed needs to save the little American and bail out these companies... From death comes life in other forms. We just gave the 4 pack-a-day smoker with lung cancer two new air bags to work with... without ever once making him cut back on a single cigarette. Sometimes, death... in the larger picture, can be a good thing.
Corey, you're more insightful than you realize....in my world it's called "creative destruction" and a fundamental premise in the theoretical world of capitalist economics wherein capital deployed in unproductive enterprises is lost - i.e., destroyed - and redirected towards those enterprises with the expectation of greater returns. It is the most efficient capital allocation system ever conceived if left to its own devices, imho. However, we didn't theorize on the less than invisible hand of government and its impact on creating meaningful dislocations in the market place.... I agee with the premise and the foundation with every fiber of my being, but I don't think the theorists ever had to run for election!!!!
It's the little guy which is most of us who will ultimately suffer the most in a real retraction. If this country can't sell goods and services because of no credit then the little guy with the job....not the mega investor is the one who suffers most.
BuckT, Interestingly enough, if there is ever a biography of me done this will be the title of the chapter that covers ages 18 to 30. Dave, You continue to dwell entirely on the micro without ever giving consideration to the macro. Tweaks can be made to the micro when they are relevant and of mutual benefit to the long term good of the micro/macro. We are in a vicious cycle of panic now in which we obsess over details to cure micro ails that are now leading to the implosion of the macro. The whole damned thing has been over-inflated for a while now, and a natural market adjustment is/was long overdue. As a said before, we just gave the 4 pack-a-day smoker with lung cancer 2 new air bags to work with. What, exactly, do you think will change?