Austerity for us, double digit pay rises and champagne for them.

[financeguy]

RBS and Lloyds drawn into rate-rigging scandal - Telegraph

[Canadiens1131]

I don't support execs making ridiculous pay levels, but at the same time I don't support legislators out for their own self-interest imposing arbitrary limits pulled out of their asses on those executives' pay levels.

What's a guy like me to do?

[Canadiens1131]

(double post)

[ladyfreckles]

I don't know a lot about economics and business here, but why couldn't we just set a requirement that the CEO can't make over a certain amount times the average worker? For example, a CEO can make whatever salary he wants as long as the other workers' pay increases as well.

I'll use the highest CEO-to-Worker pay average behind the United States as an example here, which is 50:1 in Venezuela.

If the average worker is making $30,000 a year and the CEO makes 50x that, that's $1,500,000. If the company was doing really well and the CEO wanted to make $3,000,000 the average worker would also take a double increase in pay. The max limit could be changed based on the number of employees a company has etc. This isn't really a foolproof way of doing things, but it can prevent ridiculous crap like an employer making 400x what his average worker makes.

[financeguy]

I think they have that precise system in some of the Scandinavian countries. I personally have reservations about that approach. I think it's better to use moral suasion rather than the blunt instrument of the law. But, we have to face up to the fact that a portion, possibly a substantial portion, of business leaders are apparently greedy sociopaths. Greed, well, that is just a human instinct that when acted upon can have good and bad results. Sociopathy, though, can be dangerous for society, particularly when combined with greed.

[Canadiens1131]

Originally Posted by financeguy

I think it's better to use moral suasion rather than the blunt instrument of the law

The thing is that in a population of individuals, there are always going to be a percentage of assholes that ruin it for the rest of us if we rely solely on people doing the "right thing" and not gaming the system or abusing it.

[purpleoscar]

Originally Posted by financeguy

I think they have that precise system in some of the Scandinavian countries. I personally have reservations about that approach. I think it's better to use moral suasion rather than the blunt instrument of the law. But, we have to face up to the fact that a portion, possibly a substantial portion, of business leaders are apparently greedy sociopaths. Greed, well, that is just a human instinct that when acted upon can have good and bad results. Sociopathy, though, can be dangerous for society, particularly when combined with greed.

Yet economists also can write about morality but that gets ignored my pathological narcissists:

The Theory of Moral Sentiments - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://www.mises.org/books/foundationsofmorality.pdf

Usually it's the grassroots that make the biggest change in society when they are really motivated. Top-down solutions can have only limited effects and sometimes too much power corrupting lawmakers and leading to the exact same problems we are trying to avoid. (eg. colonialism).

[ladyfreckles]

The biggest trouble with trying to create a plan like that is that it's tricky. Some companies have tens of thousands of employees, or hundreds of thousands, around the world. How do you scale for something like that? There has to be a good profit margin and middle ground and there's a lot of complicated stuff that I can't even begin to understand about economics and how businesses are run.

[financeguy]

Originally Posted by mama cass

hey did you hear about Barclays getting fined 290 million today? 'bout time too!

Lot of fallout from this one, the UK government are really pissed off - probably because it effects the reputation of UK plc as a trustworthy place to do business. It's highly unusual to see conservative ministers directly calling for bankers heads on plates.


Vince Cable tells shareholders: throw out bank cheats | Business | The Observer

Barclays: Osborne Slams 'Systematic Greed'

[mama cass]

Originally Posted by financeguy

Lot of fallout from this one, the UK government are really pissed off - probably because it effects the reputation of UK plc as a trustworthy place to do business. It's highly unusual to see conservative ministers directly calling for bankers heads on plates.


Vince Cable tells shareholders: throw out bank cheats | Business | The Observer

Barclays: Osborne Slams 'Systematic Greed'

sure, but what really pisses me off about this apparent government U-turn re. wbankers, is that these people have not been called to account because they brought the country to its knees economically, but simply because they have damaged the "image" of the City of London and, more importantly, have been caught with their pants down