Posted 12:05 AM by Gene

I feel a huge Republican tantrum coming on:

First, Congress should immediately grant public shareholders the rights, on their own, to call a shareholders' meeting to vote out the current board and to render an advisory vote on executive compensation—rights that they don't currently have. Much better than any other similar measures contemplated or previously adopted, these three rights, which are already in place and working well in Britain, would align shareholder and management interests as to both governance and executive compensation.

Second, Congress should establish a ceiling for individual executive compensation as a reasonable multiple of average employee compensation, and penalize through the corporate income tax code and/or otherwise those companies that elect to pay in excess of that multiple.

Third, Congress should close the loopholes that currently allow the wealthiest Americans to use offshore tax schemes that cost our Treasury $70 billion in taxes each year, and it should aggressively step up tax enforcement to capture the 30% or so of earnings from selling investments that currently goes unreported each year.

Fourth, Congress should tax the "carried interest" now being earned by private equity and hedge fund managers at the ordinary-income tax rate of around 35%, rather than at the much lower capital gains tax rate of 15%. Carried interest is just a form of performance fee, and like every other performance fee or bonus it should be taxed as ordinary income—otherwise it is just another example of excessive and unfair executive compensation.

And fifth, Congress should continue to oversee the compensation practices of any entity that has or relies on federal government guarantees. To this point, particular compliments should go already to those in Congress and to the New York State Attorney General for their efforts to recover the excess compensation that recently went or is still scheduled to go to AIG (AIG) executives.

This should get MITCH almost as mad as CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM! I can hear certain overly powerful radio windpassers now: THE DEMOCRAT PARTY IS BEHOLDEN TO SOCIALIST SPECIAL INTERESTS WHO WOULD STRAITJACKET THE GENIUS OF OUR FREE ENTERPRISE SYSTEM!!!!!!!!!!, or however he would gas. Mind, government shouldn't set executive salaries, and the CEOs will find a way around it. Mind also, CEOs shouldn't make 400 times the average help, especially when they fire with a grin.

Oh and yes, it doesn't help this guy was an advisor to Sen. Overcomb, but you GOP clowns brought on your loss in no small part by being the party of the hyperrich, who returned the favor by scuppering our economy. How we've been served in recent memory by zillionaire CEOs is beyond us. I'd bet even some conservatives would agree.

And besides, you won't be running the show for a while.