Needlenose

Back in September when Shrubya warned of economic doomsday if we didn’t immediately give $700 billion to the financial services execs with no-strings attached, Fubar smelled a rat.

Surely, our money is being put to good use?  Apparently, getting an accounting for the tens of billions spent to date is strictly on a need to know basis. 

However, rest assured that at least those poor financial services execs aren’t suffering!  Collectively they’ve received $1.6 billion in compensation for their stellar work:

Benefits included cash bonuses, stock options, personal use of company jets and chauffeurs, home security, country club memberships and professional money management, the AP review of federal securities documents found.The total amount given to nearly 600 executives would cover bailout costs for many of the 116 banks that have so far accepted tax dollars to boost their bottom lines.

See?  Knowing this, doesn’t it truly feel better to give than to receive?

*Update* Sadly, you won’t get the chance to tell any of these pillars of our financial services community how happy you are for them in a chance airport encounter – your tax dollars are still supporting their fleet of private jets.

A $452,000 annual salary? Appoint me!Members of the new Federal Public Company Accounting Oversight Board voted themselves $452,000 annual salaries recently, citing the need to pay industry-level wages in order to remain competitive and attract top talent. Nay-sayers like Ralph Nader decry this evident greed, pointing out that executive salaries in the private sector are already “above any reasonable assessment of their performance,” and suggesting that folks who work for the public interest would certainly be happy to work at the same salary level as the U.S. President ($400k/year, not counting ‘perks’ like free travel on Air Force One, bodyguards, lifetime pension and a future home-town library).

In spite of such lavish remuneration, these spots have been notoriously tough to fill – apparently at least 2 of the 5 board members must be actual CPAs (i.e. have some appearance of qualifications), and the nominees must be willing to divest themselves of “conflict of interest” engagements and investments before assuming the post. Is that all?