Gilded

The end of the latest Gilded Age is so recent that I still have a Daily News with a picture of a five-hundred dollar cheeseburger—or was it a thousand-dollar omelet?—dreamed up by a publicity savvy chef at some bistro or other around the city. These indelicacies were really Joe-basic diner food tricked out with shaved truffles and edible gold leaf, and were mostly consumed by reporters who likely had then to file their stories from the comfort and privacy of small, tiled spaces. The stories cropped up every couple of months or so, increasing in volume and truffles and gold leaf, like the snooze alarm on a clock that said, “IS THIS ANCIENT ROME ENOUGH FOR YOU?”
Update: This Fellow is down with the President on the pay cap. Little fishes, we are really in trouble, aren’t we?
(H/T Betty Cracker)

Now a $500,000 salary cap is supposed to be blowing the truffles off the cheeseburgers for senior executives of companies who got the largest amounts of bail-out money. But what, exactly, exactly, is a “senior executive”? Does only the “senior” executive have to sell his Lockheed? Will junior executives earn more than their bosses? Unless there is a provision for locking CEOs into their corner offices, “downsizing” their positions may become all the rage. Or a new and horrible generation of “consultants” could be spawned. Or perhaps they may start taking on second and third jobs as the simple folk do, when they can find them.

Posted by Mrs. Polly on 02/05/09 at 02:34 PM • Permalink

Categories: I Don't Know Much About Art, But I Know What I Like •

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Or perhaps we should stop pussy-footing around and break out the tar and feathers.

Not that I’m advocating violence or GBH or any of that mean nasty stuff.

Comment by Hunger Tallest Palin on 02/05/09 at 02:56 PM

I still think Congress should have taken the auto execs up on their offer to work for $1 a year if they got bailed out (but didn’t have to give up the corporate jets.) It would still be a waste of $1 but some consolation to the shareholders anyway.

Of course the argument is out that nobody will take these jobs for a paltry $500,000. I’m just not so sure about that.

Comment by marindenver on 02/05/09 at 02:59 PM

I doubt there is a way to regulate this in a way that sticks. After all, when CEOs’ salaries became obscene, they were replaced with bonuses and perks. Similarly, a big part of our current economic FAIL is the “shadow banking system” that emerged because actual banks were too regulated for some people’s tastes.

I would propose limiting the ratio of total compensation in any company to something like 30:1, but I’m sure they would find away around it, e.g. one “company” for a few executives, another for upper management, etc. Regular public shaming long ago lost its effect. Maybe fear of ending up in federal “pound me in the ass” prison (no conjugal visits!) if convicted of white-collar crimes would work.

Comment by sean on 02/05/09 at 03:06 PM

Shockingly, Carly Fiorina (she of the $21K golden parachute) isn’t too keen on the regulation of executive pay.

Comment by Betty Cracker on 02/05/09 at 03:18 PM

Someone should tell Carly that the election is over and she can stop grooming McCain’s ass hairs and get back to driving major corporations into the ground.

Speaking of douchebags, does it frighten anyone else that Donald Trump agrees with Obama on executive pay and the need for a stimulus package?

Comment by Allan on 02/05/09 at 03:31 PM

D’oh, make than $21 million!

And yes, Allan, I find the fact that Trump (and that thing on his head) sees how dire the situation is scary as hell.

Comment by Betty Cracker on 02/05/09 at 03:43 PM

Carly and Lady Lynn were charter members of the Commission for the Preservation of Ironic Self-Unawareness.

Trump every now and then, when he is not pouting for the cameras or screwing over workers or building toxic golf courses, will sound intelligent for a moment. But remember, even an empty douchebag is right twice a day.

Comment by Mrs. Polly on 02/05/09 at 03:54 PM

You’d think that the opponents of CEO salary caps would be smart enough NOT to trot out Fiorina - the queen of ridiculous perks - to support their cause. Apparently not.

Comment by Tom65 on 02/05/09 at 04:05 PM

Shockingly, Carly Fiorina (she of the $21K golden parachute) isn’t too keen on the regulation of executive pay.

The Sneed!

p.s. Great drawings, Polly.

Comment by Kevin K. on 02/05/09 at 05:48 PM

If Obama can pull this off, the pay caps will be his legacy. I can see people 100 years in the future still talking about when President Obama made the big shots take a pay cut if they wanted the government bailout. The stuff of legends!

Comment by Glix on 02/05/09 at 05:54 PM

You’d think that the opponents of CEO salary caps would be smart enough NOT to trot out Fiorina

The thrust of her argument - that the market should set salaries. (Ummm, that’s what everybody is so pissed off about now, Sneed.) And if you do want some restrictions then shareholders should vote on salaries.

That would be fine if companies had a couple dozen shareholders or even a few hundred. When you’re talking about thousands and thousands . . .

What the shareholders should do is vote out the irresponsible directors who actually set the executive pay. They are ones who have forgotten, or don’t care, that it’s the interest of the shareholders that they’re supposed to be protecting. The concept of an “independent” board of directors seems to be long gone.