Everyday I look at my 401K and feel deep pangs of pain in my stomach. I had this all carefully planned and those derivative, sly, money gropping, greedy CEOs of companies, and stock brokers on Wall Street who lined their pockets without concern for law, people, or justice stole it from me. Today I made a change, not good for Wall Street, but good for me….I transferred all current 401K funds and all future funds to US Treasury Bonds. I may not make money; but the risk of losing my money has decreased enormously.
Everyone is writing and reporting on the economy. Do you understand what they are saying? If you are like me, bet you don’t. I watched 60 minutes Sunday night and Steve Kroft did a GREAT job of explaining the greed and insidious disregard for law and order that caused this mess. You can view it by clicking here.
I thought you might be interested in some of the CEO salaries of the defunk, or almost defunk companies:
Richard Fuld, CEO of Lehman Bros. earned more than $500 million in bonuses and wages while working at Lehman, including $106 million in 2006 alone, while failing to properly address Lehman’s difficulties.
Morgan Stanley : 2007 John Mack Totals, $17,231,500
Goldman Sachs : 2007 Lloyd Blankfein $43,100,000
But, it was also reported at end of 2007 the firm was celebrating confirmation of bumper bonuses for the year, with the Chairman and Chief Executive, Lloyd Blankfein, expected to lead the pack with a 30% increase in his pay to about $70 million. Blankfein’s 3-year earnings would have amounted to $162 million. What a difference a year makes, right Lloyd?
Bear Stearns: 2006 James Cayne $32,100,000
Merrill Lynch : 2007 John Thain $15,800,000 ; 2008: Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain stands to receive $11 million from restricted stock options when the sale of his bank to Bank of America is completed,
according to several reports.Thain’s total stock compensation depends on the value of Bank of America when the deal is finalized, probably in early 2009. Thain earns an annual salary of $750,000, in addition to a $15 million signing bonus he received in December 2007. Additionally, Thain received 46,000 restricted shares when he arrived at Merrill, according to Dow Jones. Merrill shares were trading at $17 before announcement of the sale to Bank of America, down from $56 a share when Thain was hired in 2007.
Washington Mutual : 2007 Kerry K. Killinger $4,468,625
AIG: 2007 Martin J. Sullivan $15,847,439
Fannie Mae :2007 Daniel Mudd $8,400,000
2008: Daniel Mudd, the outgoing CEO of Fannie Mae, could receive more than $9 million in combined severance pay, retirement benefits and deferred compensation based on his employment agreement. ( I am so happy he got a retirement benefit package. Maybe I should call him and see if he will share his with us?)
Freddie Mac: 2007 Richard Syron $5,590,000 ; 2008: Departing Freddie Mac CEO Richard Syron may collect as much as $14.1 million. The total includes an estimated $8.8 million tied to an unique provision in his contract that became effective last November, when Freddie’s troubles had already come under scrutiny. So when things looked bleak, he got more money. Nice work. Can
you tell us how to do that Dickie?
So while the rest of us are still hemmoraging financially, its nice to know these people and their families will be well taken care of for the way they skirted the industry standards, lied, used derivatives when they knew they weren’t worth the paper they were written on. I have heard that every dog gets its day. Hopefully these will get theirs, pound for pound. I say we strip them all of their retirement funds save for $50,000 which is still more than most of us will have by the time the tournquet is applied to stop the financial bleeding.
Agree? Disagree? Tell your stories here.
October 7th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
I am sick of all of this stuff. When is the government going to take control, fine these idiots and take their money and put it to the pay off of the 700 billion dollars?
October 7th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
I cannot wait to see what lame duck bush does about these ceo salaries and parachutes. He’ll probably pardon all these folks and their co-conspirators in their take as much money as we can get mentality.
October 7th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
I just read David Weidner’s article in Market Watch about Lehman’s Fuld and how he hid about $10 billion in losses in his 2nd quarter reports. It also reported on his complete change of top management (they are probably laughing now) and is greed. He needs to pay for this.
From Weidner’s article about Fuld who testified before Congress last week “Those lucky enough to get a glimpse at Lehman’s books apparently were appalled at what they saw. Some commercial real estate holdings were being valued close to 100% when everyone else had them at 65 cents on the dollar, according to anonymous sources cited by the report.”
Weidner goes on “With the benefit of hindsight,” he said in his testimony, “I can now say that I and many others were wrong.”
For this he earned $480 million in pay since 2001? Forgive me while I roll around on the trading floor laughing.”
Well I am not laughing; I’m crying. Make him pay!
October 8th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Saw this on proaging network from usa today: “Crisis drains $2 trillion from Americans’ retirement plans - USA Today
Not to pour salt in the wound, but the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the financial trauma of the past 15 months has drained about $2 trillion from Americans’ retirement plans.
“Some people will delay their retirement. In particular, those on the verge of retirement may decide they can no longer afford to retire and will continue working,” Peter Orszag, the head of the CBO, told the the House Education and Labor Committee today, the Associated Press reports.
He estimated that 401(k) accounts as well as public and private pensions have lost 20%. Private retirement plans likely suffered steeper losses because of heavier weightings of individual stocks instead of index funds.
AARP found that one in five workers 45 and older has stopped contributing to a 401(k), IRA or other retirement savings account during the past year. ”
I think its safe to say we are not going to be able to retire. I was chastised for moving my 401K to treasury bonds as it would not help wall street. Well who is helping me? I have had almost 40% loss in my 401K so far this year. No one is going to support me in my retirement but me
October 8th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
I put my money in us treasury bonds also. You gotta do what you gotta do to survive