Friday, September 25, 2009

Greedy Executives

I just have to hammer this nail one more time to drive it home.

I recently heard on the radio that financial organizations have given $11 billion of the taxpayers' bailout funds to their own executives in the form of bonuses.

These companies are not lending the money to stimulate the economy; instead they are paying it to their own greedy executives. In other words, they are rewarding themselves for not using the bailout funds as we intended.

Most of us are unaware that this is happening. The rest of us just yawn and do nothing about it.

The Week magazine spotlighted Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs, last week. They quoted him as saying that much financial activity "lacks social or economic value." That is essentially what I said in my earlier postings on the subject.

So we continue to pay these executives huge salaries and bonuses for activity that lacks social or economic value. This needs to stop. Let's restructure so that the money goes to people who make things and who provide needed services.