Workers Laid Off, Execs Paid Off by Amy Goodman

[Joanne98]

The global financial crisis deepens, with more than 10 million in the U.S. out of work, according to the Department of Labor.

Unemployment hit 6.7 percent in November. Add the 7.3 million "involuntary part-time workers," who want to work full time but can't find a position. Jobless claims have reached a 26-year high, while 30 states reportedly face potential shortfalls in their unemployment insurance pools.

The stunning failure of regulators like the Securities and Exchange Commission was again highlighted, as former NASDAQ head Bernard Madoff (you got it, pronounced "made off") was arrested for allegedly running the world's largest criminal pyramid scheme, with losses expected at $50 billion, dwarfing those from the Enron scandal. The picture is grim - unless, that is, you are a corporate executive.

The $700 billion financial bailout package, TARP (Troubled Assets Relief Program), was supposed to mandate the elimination of exorbitant executive compensation and "golden parachutes." As U.S. taxpayers pony up their hard-earned dollars, highflying executives and corporate boards are now considering whether to give themselves multimillion-dollar bonuses.

According to The Washington Post, the specific language in the TARP law that forbade such payouts was changed at the last minute, with a small but significant one-sentence edit made by the Bush administration. The Post reported, "The change stipulated that the penalty would apply only to firms that received bailout funds by selling troubled assets to the government in an auction."

Read the fine print. Of the TARP bailout funds to be disbursed, only those that were technically spent "in an auction" would have limits imposed on executive pay. But Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and his former Goldman Sachs colleague Neel Kashkari (yes, pronounced "cash carry"), who is running the program, aren't inclined to spend the funds in auctions. They prefer their Capital Purchase Program, handing over cash directly. Recall Paulson's curriculum vitae: He began as a special assistant to John Ehrlichman in the Nixon White House and then went on to work for a quarter-century at Goldman Sachs, one of the largest recipients of bailout funds and chief competitor to Lehman Brothers, the firm that Paulson let fail.

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http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/12/18-6