CEO Fuld. Next stop? My guess, Gstaad, Switzerland.
Bloomberg.com: Worldwide — This venerable institution is now toast thanks to current greedy management practices. Does anyone ever go to jail for this sort of mess? CEO Richard Fuld made 0ver $70 million last year for this fine job he has done. This is a joke, right?
Bank of America Corp. abandoned talks to buy Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., according to a person with knowledge of the matter, less than three hours after Barclays Plc said it wouldn’t buy the faltering investment bank.
Bank of America, the biggest U.S. consumer bank, and Barclays, the U.K.’s third-largest lender, had been among the leading candidates to acquire all or parts of New York-based Lehman.
The two potential bidders pulled out amid a third day of emergency negotiations led by the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve, Leigh Bruce, a spokesman for London-based Barclays, said in a phone interview today.
The U.S. government is racing to find a solution for Lehman before markets open tomorrow, two people familiar with the situation said. Barclays walked away because it couldn’t get guarantees from the government or agree on a private-sector deal to mitigate what it called Lehman’s “open-ended” trading obligations.
Led by Chief Executive Officer Richard Fuld, Lehman may be forced to liquidate unless buyers step up for all or part of the 158-year-old company
Forbes profiles.
Compensation and “Best Bosses” List.
America’s Richest Men List
Those compensations are obscene!
Obscene Compensation–yep. I still can’t get over the 14Million package JUST negotiated by the Fannie Mae Exec 3-4 months before they got bailed out===and the USA is going to honor it.
Sometimes the line between fraud and stupidity can be debateable. In cases like this, the USA shows itself to be both.
Such are the joys of capitalism as practiced in the US. Only in America can you f&ck up your job almost beyond belief, and then become rich beyond your wildest dreams.
The Lehman nimrod’s salary alone would have paid the salaries of 1400 workers making $60,000/yr.
The guy should go to Alaska. Jeez, up there, the Public Safety Commissioner got fired because HE would not fire the guy Palin’s sister was mad at (her ex-husband). I’ll bet he didn’t get any golden parachute.
Greed is good…
Never fear, if I recall the same scenario occurred with Bear Stearns. By Monday morning, the government had bailed them out and I suspect history will repeat itself. Welfare for the rich.
#4 “Such are the joys of capitalism as practiced in the US. Only in America can you f&ck up your job almost beyond belief, and then become rich beyond your wildest dreams.”
Don’t buy stock or product from companies you don’t like. Solved.
Heck of a job Brownie! Idiocracy isn’t just a movie … it’s here right now for realz.
You may think that Dick Fuld and his ilk are assholes for trading in such highly leveraged assets with poorly managed risk, helping to place our entire financial system in peril, but please have a little compassion. There’s a significant possibility that the wrong person could be elected president, and Fuld’s taxes might actually go up.
Now, let’s see those tears start flowing.
Amazon’s “Books for former Lehman bond analysts”..
http://www.amazon.com/Books-Former-Lehman-Bond-Analysts/lm/6KPK4DPDZKHL
TinyURL:
http://tinyurl.com/5cgxs4
Mr. CEO Fuld is on the board at das Federal Reserve New York Bank and a party member of WEF. Lehman Brothers makes some nice pin stripe suits, right?
I hope those capitalist pigs wallow in the sh*t they have created. Give’em a rifle and send’em to Iraq…
Thanks to Bush Co, the US Treasury is also a house of cards built on Chinese loans and Social Security IOU’s.
It’s only a matter of time before that bubble will burst.
Better put our boots on! Its getting real deep! Tell me how do we allow someone to make 70 million when the company is tanking??
#8, sigh… that only works in your dreams.
Damn, does this guy look like the Grinch that Stole Xmas or what? The rate of the pack is determined by the speed of the leader.
Fuld – pronounced fooled.
Knock knock knock.
“Yes, yes. Come right in….”
“Good day sir. I have a letter from the Board of Directors concerning your compensation arrangement. They feel tht you are doing such a fine job, they voted to compensate you $70,000,000.00 this year, (that’s $269,230.00 a day, sir, or roughly $33,654 dollars an hour, including payment for all your 8 weeks of vacation), plus a large separation payment if you decide to leave. And, of course, a chauffered limousine or, if you prefer, a Ferrari, a personal Lear Jet, a company yacht at your disposal, a fully paid villa in the South of France, two new Rolex watches of your choice every week, 4 private chefs, a fresh set of monogrammed bath towels every week, and a lifetime subscription to Showtime and HBO”.
“Oh, no, no, no. I couldn’t POSSIBLY accept that much in benefits and salary. I am not worthy. How about if I just do the same job, and you only have to pay me $120,000.00 for the year, with only 4 weeks vacation? I have a nice little savings account, and a healthy 401k. I would much rather not take advantage of the company. Would that be OK?”
“Oh…well, that is quite irregular, but if you insist…”
“I insist. And by the way, take the leftover $69,780,000.00, sell the yacht, the villa, the Rolexes, and everything else, and distribute it all to Bob Crachet and all his co-workers…And run down to the poultry shop, and bring me back the biggest goose they have..”
“Fine, sir. Fine. I will indeed. And Merry Christmas to you, sir”.
“And have Bob Marley come in. I need to speak to him about this expenditure for hardware. Seems he is forging something without my approval”.
Knock knock knock.
“Yes, yes. Come right in….”
“Good day sir. I have a letter from the Board of Directors concerning your compensation arrangement. They feel tht you are doing such a fine job, they voted to compensate you $70,000,000.00 this year, (that’s $269,230.00 a day, sir, or roughly $33,654 dollars an hour, including payment for all your 8 weeks of vacation), plus a large separation payment if you decide to leave. And, of course, a chauffered limousine or, if you prefer, a Ferrari, a personal Lear Jet, a company yacht at your disposal, a fully paid villa in the South of France, two new Rolex watches of your choice every week, 4 private chefs, a fresh set of monogrammed bath towels every week, and a lifetime subscription to Showtime and HBO”.
“Oh, no, no, no. I couldn’t POSSIBLY accept that much in benefits and salary. I am not worthy. How about if I just do the same job, and you only have to pay me $120,000.00 for the year, with only 4 weeks vacation? I have a nice little savings account, and a healthy 401k. I would much rather not take advantage of the company. Would that be OK?”
“Oh…well, that is quite irregular, but if you insist…”
“I insist. And by the way, take the leftover $69,780,000.00, sell the yacht, the villa, the Rolexes, and everything else, and distribute it all to Bob Crachet and all his co-workers…And run down to the poultry shop, and bring me back the biggest goose they have..”
“Fine, sir. Fine. I will indeed. And Merry Christmas to you, sir”.
“And have Bob Marley come in. I need to speak to him about this expenditure for hardware. Seems he is having some metal forging done without my approval”.
$350 Million for the last 5 years… 1/3 of a Billion dollars in SALARY for 5 years… you can’t make this shit up.
If you are a McCain loyalist, you support lowering his tax rate, because having people like him make this kind of money is good for the economy… ignore the bailouts… this stuff is good for the economy. Lower his tax rates, but leave the tax rate for those making $45,000 the same.
But having this putz be part of the 5% of Americsns that would see their taxes rise under Obama’s plan is unfair wealth redistribution.
What kind of crooked twisted rigged game is being played that allows failed leadership to be rewarded in this way? Part of ANY bailout plan MUST include retroactively (since beginning of employment) limiting income to $1 million / year maximum, with everything above that now due back to the government to be part of the bailout… that alone would provide 1/2 of a Billion dollars in funds from this putz by himself.
#19 LOL Digby, that’s one version of how it happened. Another version is that he hired the lobbying firm that had done so well for the village of Wasilla. They went right to work, and the Lehman board was putty in their hands.
The only demand they weren’t able to satisfy was the 9 Olympic gold medals he wanted as part of his compensation package. Fuld just hates it when someone else has more of something than he does. Oh well, maybe next time…
#17 – SpEd
>>Damn, does this guy look like the Grinch that Stole
>>Xmas or what?
Actually, Becky Quick looks more like the Grinch that Stole Christmas
http://tinyurl.com/6evnj4
Watch her talk on CNBC sometime. Those pointy little lips? Either she’s the Grinch in disguise, or his daughter.
Regardless of whether Lehman is bailed out or not, it’s not done yet. WAMU, Meryl Lynch, AIG are all suffering or on the ropes.
The global scope of this astounding. England has tanked over this, Far East markets are hit, etc. Huge adjustments are still needed and short sellers are needed to add liquidity. It’ll be ugly.
I don’t really have a problem with the former CEO getting his golden parachute as long as that was in his contract when he was hired. Its the board, and the investors fault for giving him such a huge amount with no ties to job performance. It would be like you or I, getting a job where we get our entire year of pay up front, but with no real requirement to work that full year or even show up for work. We would call the company and the boss that hired us an idiot, and more than a few would take the money and run.
The part where I actually care is when the government comes in and bails the companies out after giving their CEO such a deal, and then said CEO does a crappy job and drives the company into the ground.
Let the companies that do this die. After a few of the big ones go the way of the Doe Doe bird maybe the ones that are left will get the message and actually start to look out for their own companies instead of their fellow board members like their share holders insist.
>>Let the companies that do this die.
I’m with ya on that one, Bob. It may be ugly for a while, but, like cancer surgery to remove a malignant tumor, it will be better for the patient (i.e. the US economy) in the long run.
Too many people have made way too much money for waaaaaaay to long by doing nothing but shuffling papers. WTF do CDOs, derivatives, ETFs, and arbitrage have to do with the Average Joe/ Josephine who goes to work, tries to buy a home, provide for the family, and save some money for retirement?
With the trillions and trillions of dollars wasted on this smoke-and-mirrors Wall Street nonsense, everyone in America (and their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren) could have lived happy, secure lives.
#14 The absurdity they call accounting in the federal government started long, long before Bush entered the White House. I knew in high school Social Security would implode the budget before I retire. All the little fixes from the Carter years to now have yet to solve the real problem and the blame is so thick neither party can raise itself out of the quagmire.
#26 – Cap
No, the solution to the Social Security “crisis” is to just have dickwads like Dumbya quit stealing money from the SS coffers to finance his misbegotten trophy war, his tax cuts for the rich, and like that.
See how easy?
Mission Accomplished!!
#25 “Too many people have made way too much money for waaaaaaay to long by doing nothing but shuffling papers.”
Making money by merely shuffling money is the main crime of capitalism.
#29 – Patrick
>>Making money by merely shuffling money is the
>>main crime of capitalism.
I’m going to have to agree with you there, Paddy-O. We’ve become a nation (or a world) of money-changers, and they should all be kicked out on their asses from the world temple for this abomination.
#29 “I’m going to have to agree with you there, Paddy-O. We’ve become a nation (or a world) of money-changers”
Marx knew something was VERY wrong. He just went a bit wide and netted all private industry. He needed to just nail the bankers, market manipulators, and other financial parasites that didn’t actually produce anything of value…
What happened to the good old days when the president or CEO of a failed or bankrupt company would commit ritual suicide rather then face dishonour? Or at least jump out the window of their office on the 50th floor?