Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: SkyRock on September 18, 2008, 02:59:54 PM

Title: I agree with this commentary!
Post by: SkyRock on September 18, 2008, 02:59:54 PM
I am a capitalist. I love it when executives earn boatloads of money. But it infuriates me when they get it without earning it.

If the executives' compensation is tied to the volume of business rather than the quality of business, we should expect dealmakers to be more attentive to the number of transactions than the value they create. This is the basis for much of the sub-prime mess, whose collateral damage is taking down the biggest firms on Wall Street.

At Merrill Lynch, former CEO Stanley O'Neal received total compensation of more than $91 million for 2006, according to The Corporate Library's calculations. He was given that package based on performance numbers that came out before nearly $23 billion in write-downs by the company.

O'Neal received more than $160 million in stock and retirement benefits while shareholders lost more than 41 percent of their investment value over the year. Three executives brought in to Merrill less than a year ago will share a $200 million payment as they turn over the company to Bank of America in a last-minute deal to help it survive.

 :aok
Title: Re: I agree with this commentary!
Post by: eagl on September 18, 2008, 03:18:24 PM
Since you forgot to mention who actually wrote that, here's the link to the whole article:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/18/minow.pay/index.html

Title: Re: I agree with this commentary!
Post by: Bodhi on September 18, 2008, 03:21:24 PM
Since you forgot to mention who actually wrote that, here's the link to the whole article:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/18/minow.pay/index.html



He can not be concerned with quoting the author.  It is better just to plagiarize and appear to be super smart.
Title: Re: I agree with this commentary!
Post by: SkyRock on September 18, 2008, 03:24:00 PM
He can not be concerned with quoting the author.  It is better just to plagiarize and appear to be super smart.
nothing I posted suggested I wrote that.   On the contrary, it suggested that I agreed with the author! :aok
Title: Re: I agree with this commentary!
Post by: Kaw1000 on September 18, 2008, 03:24:15 PM
Corporate greed at its finest!! and the bad part the Ceos know that there is
not a dang thing anyone can do about it!
Title: Re: I agree with this commentary!
Post by: scot12b on September 18, 2008, 03:38:39 PM
(http://www.world-of-smilies.com/html/images/smilies/gewalt/BIGYuppyAcid.gif) I see were this is headed  :O
Title: Re: I agree with this commentary!
Post by: SkyRock on September 18, 2008, 03:40:41 PM
Corporate greed at its finest!! and the bad part the Ceos know that there is
not a dang thing anyone can do about it!
yup, those 4 people screwed their investors out of almost 500 million dollars. :furious
Title: Re: I agree with this commentary!
Post by: Kaw1000 on September 18, 2008, 03:42:36 PM
It happens all the time, with no repercussions...Bull  :furious
Title: Re: I agree with this commentary!
Post by: Bodhi on September 18, 2008, 05:01:02 PM
The blame lies with the investors.  But, our "no fault" mentality won't allow that.

Until people realize that the government can not bail them out of everything, this stuff will not change.
Title: Re: I agree with this commentary!
Post by: SkyRock on September 18, 2008, 05:05:35 PM
The blame lies with the investors. 
moron statement. :aok
Title: Re: I agree with this commentary!
Post by: Bodhi on September 18, 2008, 05:23:38 PM
moron statement. :aok

I'll consider the source of the above statement.

Keep blaming the government and CEO's all you want.  Just keep in mind Mr. Wizard, that when you invest large sums of money (or any money for that matter), you had best understand who is running the company and what direction they are going to take it.  Instead of just blaming the CEO's and lack of Government Regulation, you need to assign blame to the people who decided it would be wise to invest with those companies that gave such rediculous compensation and severance packages to their CEO's.  Investment Houses post all that stuff.  If you want to invest with them, then it is up to you to do your own homework.

Title: Re: I agree with this commentary!
Post by: eagl on September 18, 2008, 05:35:57 PM
I'll consider the source of the above statement.

Keep blaming the government and CEO's all you want.  Just keep in mind Mr. Wizard, that when you invest large sums of money (or any money for that matter), you had best understand who is running the company and what direction they are going to take it.  Instead of just blaming the CEO's and lack of Government Regulation, you need to assign blame to the people who decided it would be wise to invest with those companies that gave such rediculous compensation and severance packages to their CEO's.  Investment Houses post all that stuff.  If you want to invest with them, then it is up to you to do your own homework.


Bodhi, the problem is that "blame the investors" is correct, but a lot more complex than you think and brainless fools like skycrock don't help with their habit of crapping on anyone who actually tries to explain anything.  He's partly correct but he doesn't know why so he relies on insults and mindless blathering about stuff he doesn't understand and can't explain.

If as a private investor I dumped (for example) $10,000 into bundled sub-prime mortgages and lose everything, then I'm a retard.  The problem however is that it's not just minor players that did this.  Major banks dumped hundreds of MILLIONS of dollars into these bundled sub-prime mortgages, and used them essentially as guarantees against other loans as well.  When the loans turned out to be worthless, not only did the private investors lose money, but the BIG investors running these banks and investment houses quite literally lost billions.  And since those billions were guarantees against even more loans, you can see how the problem resulted in an $85 billion bailout.

So yea, blame the investors is correct, but the investors who need to be lined up and shot are the ones who were juggling all these worthless bundled mortgages and treating them like real assets, when in fact every time they were traded they lost value because lenders had all the incentive in the world to keep making more and more worthless loans.  They were almost literally playing with monopoly money, paying loan agents to keep printing more of the stuff by handing out more stupidly worthless loans.

Yea, blame the investors, but blame the right ones.  Private investors didn't lose billions overnight, the big players did and there are probably 2 dozen people MAX who did this.  As the article pointed out, many of those who gambled with these worthless investments got massive bonuses and walked away from the ruin they caused with $100 million paychecks.

Title: Re: I agree with this commentary!
Post by: eagl on September 18, 2008, 05:37:12 PM
dup post deleted
Title: Re: I agree with this commentary!
Post by: Bodhi on September 18, 2008, 05:40:45 PM
Bodhi, the problem is that "blame the investors" is correct, but a lot more complex than you think and brainless fools like skycrock don't help with their habit of crapping on anyone who actually tries to explain anything.


If as a private investor I dumped (for example) $10,000 into bundled sub-prime mortgages and lose everything, then I'm a retard.  The problem however is that it's not just minor players that did this.  Major banks dumped hundreds of MILLIONS of dollars into these bundled sub-prime mortgages, and used them essentially as guarantees against other loans as well.  When the loans turned out to be worthless, not only did the private investors lose money, but the BIG investors running these banks and investment houses quite literally lost billions.  And since those billions were guarantees against even more loans, you can see how the problem resulted in an $85 billion bailout.

So yea, blame the investors is correct, but the investors who need to be lined up and shot are the ones who were juggling all these worthless bundled mortgages and treating them like real assets, when in fact every time they were traded they lost value because lenders had all the incentive in the world to keep making more and more worthless loans.

Yea, blame the investors, but blame the right ones.  Private investors didn't lose billions overnight, the big players did and there are probably 2 dozen people MAX who did this.  As the article pointed out, many of those who gambled with these worthless investments got massive bonuses and walked away from the ruin they caused with $100 million paychecks.



I agree a 100% Eagl.  Going more in depth as you had will just be lost on certain individuals here.
Title: Re: I agree with this commentary!
Post by: Stang on September 18, 2008, 05:54:30 PM
My old man has worked at Merrill for close to 40 years.  He hated O'neal, wasn't surprised at all when the toejam hit the fan.  Disgusting what the guy walked away with.
Title: Re: I agree with this commentary!
Post by: SkyRock on September 18, 2008, 07:03:28 PM
I'll consider the source of the above statement.

Keep blaming the government and CEO's all you want.  Just keep in mind Mr. Wizard, that when you invest large sums of money (or any money for that matter), you had best understand who is running the company and what direction they are going to take it.  Instead of just blaming the CEO's and lack of Government Regulation, you need to assign blame to the people who decided it would be wise to invest with those companies that gave such rediculous compensation and severance packages to their CEO's.  Investment Houses post all that stuff.  If you want to invest with them, then it is up to you to do your own homework.


Geesh, some coward theif(put in charge of how well the investmant will go for the investors) screws the pooch and everybody looses everything, yet they walk out with 190million.  You are not worth typing to if you think that is how this US of A was supposed to work.  That is abuse, no two ways around it. :aok
Title: Re: I agree with this commentary!
Post by: SkyRock on September 18, 2008, 07:07:45 PM
brainless fools like skycrock doesn't know why so he relies on insults and mindless blathering about stuff he doesn't understand and can't explain.



Check my posts over the last two weeks, look back at Bhodi's while you're at it, check to see who started the insults first.  My post in here where I called his comment, a "moron statement", was just following his own standard he started in another thread.  I didn't even call him a moron, just his statement, but, since you are predisposed to rely on insults and mindless blathering, you wouldn't have noticed. :aok
Title: Re: I agree with this commentary!
Post by: SkyRock on September 18, 2008, 07:11:16 PM
My old man has worked at Merrill for close to 40 years.  He hated O'neal, wasn't surprised at all when the poop hit the fan.  Disgusting what the guy walked away with.
Around here we call people like that, thieves.  Just because it was under the umbrella of the law, does not make it any less than stealing.  I know in my heart, that I could never take that kind of money under that circumstance.  There are many grey areas in capitalism where rotten hearted people legally steal from their countrymen. :aok