I came across a story this morning that I wanted to share with everyone as it seems to embody some of the rage being expressed as part of the Occupy Wall Street that has spread to other parts of the country and world.
In the article, titled, “Ex-Gannett Reporter Shreds Publisher over Dubow’s $37 million Parting Gift“, former Gannett employee Peter Lewis takes Gannett and departing CEO Craig Dubow to task for a giant severance package even though the company went backwards during Dubow’s tenure.
Basically, Dubow, who resigned as CEO last Friday, is being paid $37 million even though when he took over the company, the stock price was near $70 and now is closer to $10 a share. So, at the time Dubow took over, and assuming the number of outstanding shares was similar to today, Gannett had a market capitalization value of over $17 billion compared to its present market cap of $2.6 billion; quite a haircut. Also during the six year period Dubow was in charge, the head count went from 52,000 to 32,000.
Now, it is noted that Dubow managed to return Gannett to profitability, which at the end of the day, is exactly what investors are looking for. But, if one of the measurements of success for a company is the increase in its share price, Dubow failed miserably.
Apparently Dubow was entitled to the $37 million severance package, but it brings in to question, how does something like this happen? I mean, if he had managed during one of the most difficult times in the history of media to figure out a way to steady the company and turn it around while its stock price climbed steadily, that would be impressive. Instead, he had to let 20,000 people go and the stock price spiraled under his leadership.
I don’t have enough details to fully pass judgement, but you can imagine the type of reaction this story will get from those same individuals who are marching on Wall Street. To them, it will seem incomprehensible that someone could receive millions of dollars for such underwhelming performance. And, to be honest, I have to say I feel the same way.
I am fully behind the Occupy Wall St. protesters!
I cannot believe the severance packages these people get for running the company into ruins. I think he owes the company some money for how poorly he did. There is no action for doing poorly it is like I will take the job it does not matter if I do well or do good I still have that golden parachute at the end.
The fundamental premise of free market economics is that, at the margin, everything is priced fairly — wages, prices, interest rates — and that any “economic profit” (exceptional returns) quickly attract capital and then competition drives prices to a “fair” equilibrium. NO ONE steals from the system — whether getting something for nothing OR getting way too much for doing not much at all — for very long. It all works out.
But THAT — the canon of free enterprise — is JUST NOT HAPPENING. People are unfairly rewarded throughout the income/asset spectrum in ways that simply do not correlate to their economic contribution.
The model — which arguably worked for 200 years — just doesn’t work anymore.
Very well articulated Mike.
And that is why a “tax the Rich” should be put in place. If the board of directors can’t control the compensation from the start then government should do it from the back side.
John, I agree with you100%. It coud make for a good case in the Harvard , Stanford and Northwestern MBA programmes.
Outrageous. Sadly a repeating story…. look at HP. corrupt board of directors everywhere.
these guys with the exorbitant golden parachutes ought to be hanged-glided instead
Zeek, I’m assuming you don’t envision a safe landing!
The semblance of a free market has made the U.S.A the richest country ever with the most wonderful middle class and the ability for ANYONE with normal or more IQ and willing to work hard and save the ability to move up to the middle class.
But we have not had a free market in generations and it gets worse every time Congress is in session.
It isn’t Wall St, it’s Congress and the socialist give away policies…if anyhone should be “occupied” it’s them. But this “occupy” movement is disgusting, and lacks any credible goal other than to get more freebiees handed to the “occupants” and chaos.
As Tea Party member I can tell you our rallies are rallies with a purpose: cut spending, limit government to Constitutional guidelines and reduce taxes. We dont “Occupy” we meet and disperse and go to our homes or our schools or our jobs. That’s the proper way to behave.
Before you judge the OWS movement based on the media’s portrayal, remember how your Tea Party was portrayed: swastikas, racial slurs, and a proud and abundant display of firearms. Also beware of all the statistics bandied about regarding all the jobs that are available to anyone who wants to work. Believe me, the protesters would much rather be working at a job. Some of them are fortunate enough to have jobs, and most have homes, and have families they would rather be spending time with.They are bravely sounding the alarm, as some Tea Partiers did. No freebies are desired by OWS, only honest work for a living wage and respect for fellow humans. Let’s hope they do not get co-opted by corporate interest in the way that your Party was.
Lynn,
You addressed the government, but how do you and your party address the issue in this article? Are you blaming the government policies for why this CEO got paid millions for an unsuccessful mission?
Maybe the severance was contractual, if it was they need to change the formula.
As far as Occupy Wall Street….the mass of people are either knowingly or unknowingly being duped. There are many other influences occuring within this event. Remember, never let a movement go without exploitation.
Ditto
Note to “Wall Street”. Yo\u asked for it-you got it, Toyota!
Somewhere capitalism, in the form of executive pay, has got it very wrong. This happens also in public service where short term senior public servants can walk away, here in the UK at least, with ridiculous packages.
It is surely the institutional investors who have allowed this to happen over the recent past Bull market of 1982 – 99 when buying and holding was the best investment strategy and confronting managements on pay was seen as an unnecessary complication. Once the non-confrontational approach was in place it is now difficult to overcome.
Again, collectivism has let down the individual. We need to find mechanisms for collective investors to be more accountable not just for their performance but also for their superivisory duties on behalf of the collective (i.e mostly small) investors.
I should have said in the last sentence “on behalf of THEIR collective investors.”
the occupy wall street nuts are nothing more than useful idiots for the communist socialist democrat movement.. any body with common sense understands that th ceo made a contract with the board of directors for this separation payout. it is the board of directors that is to blame for this stupidity not the ceo. hell, i’d take the sweet deal and i’m sure 99.9% of the population would too. unfortunately the protesters likely dont know what a board of directors is and maybe neither does mr.hopkins
How goes the battle for the rich?
Dim Star,
What you fail to understand is that the Boards are put in by the ceos or friends of ceo, and they craft these ridiculous golden parachutes. The new ceo has a golden parachute about equal to debows. The stock is owned by stockholders, and I as a stock holder, I did not vote for these outrageous payoffs. How about putting employees on the board, so that someone looks out for the workers?
I still believe that markets will work if allowed to. What was Steve Jobs worth to Apple when he took the stock from the toilet to the rafters? What Boards need to learn from this is compensation packages need to be tied to performance. I don’t mean for one quarter, either. If someone can deliver real returns, they should be compensated.
What are these same critics saying of professional athelete compansation packages? How about professional actors? How about the politicians turned management who ran FNMA and FMAC into the ground? Where was the outrage at their salaries.
The government should NOT be in the business of dictating wages. The market will sort this out, if given the time and opportunity. Let mismanaged companies fail. Then purge the incompetent Boards and management. That will set the stage for real inovation and improved management.
Show me a socialist or communist country that has been effective for 200 years. Tell me there is no corruption or missallocation of resources or concentration of wealth under those forms of government.
All you have to do is look at China and their cities with no population to know how ineffective government bureaucrats truly are. Central planning will never be successful.
Let the educators rewrite history. Let’s continue to preach B.S. to young minds and see where we that takes us. Occupy Wall Street is a cause without purpose. Most of the people there can’t even define capitalism correctly. How on earth are they ever going to run a small business let alone a huge country.
Yes, go ahead a screw the rich. Take from them that which isn’t yours. But remember this, if you can take it from someone today, who will protect you from the same fate in the future? There is always someone who has less than you and NEEDS something.
Freedom comes at a price. It requires individual responsibility. Quit whining and go find a pascifier you bunch of leftist cry babies.
I am not rich. Definitely not by financial measures, but I am extremely fortunate to still have a few freedoms left. I will leave you alone to seek your dreams. Please give me the same courtesy.
I would say that this a convoluted payment scheeme, but with sopme qualifications… The first would be that our system in not truly a free market Capitalist system that even if we disagrre over how free to be, at the end of the day it is stock hokdres who own the company. This is the theory we should operate under. This means that corporations duty is to the stockholder and performce is rewarded based upon positive results.
On the other hand they should be off limites for favors as special Interests and the alliance with the political establishment. That would entail that taxes are paid by the sharehoiders, not twice, once as corportate taxes and then what is left over is delved out as “dividents” or as “retained earnings” that will fund acquistions and grow the compamy with integration horizontally,verticallly, or both. All with the shareholders as the ones have an ownership state per the relative prorarat stake. Capital gaines are profit and also increase sharehoolders yield as all prices will revert to the meaan when over or undervalued.
In conclusion, thier are only few choced or opportunites available to those that make profits, as they are to save, spend or donate, as I do not believe if were allowed to accumalate real wealth most would burn it, but that is an option esp. with fiat Currency! The savings can take many forms as they can be used to loan capital to other compnaies, or to be used to fund with Capital the start up (seed) money that would create jobs.
Even at this time the retail Investor who just works for himself, managing his own invetsements is not considered as Employed! Yet they are performoig a service that others can charge them for and take apprpriate expenses as needed to perform his function. Possibley they wil do better than many (CFA), anmd maybe worse, none the less, it is a job.
Those that want to use others wealth as a way to get benefits are a portion of this group, and they need to look in the mirror and see that thier are many ways to steal from the prudent investor. By management with no accountabilty, and by Unions who deal in coercive tactics to get above market rates, and by taxation by force to fund social ideas of services. Thier are too many variable and most are highly subjective, and in the end we need a system that makes sense, is not constantly changed for political reasons, and is so convoluted that most can only think in a linear Left or rights way or concept.
This is the price we pay in choosing corrupt officials to oversee positions of trust (whether corp. or political). Short of having a dictatorship, the problem will be a recurring one. In cases of corporate theft, perhaps a massive retroactive tax (say on 95% of such ill-gotten gains above a reasonable amount) would help to curtail such thievery.
The people who are behind “occupy” seem to be the usual suspects whenever there is a protest…doesn’t matter what the protest is about, they’re there! Add frustration about things in general and ..”.hey, I know…lets occupy Wall Street” There you go…I think compensation is set by contract when a person is hired…It seems that firms should be aware of PR when they dismiss someone!
Let me have a shot at his job! I can’t do any worse (even though I have no management experience or MBA) and I’ll even take half as much for my golden parachute. What a savings to Gannett!
The guys at the diner, the guys at the country club , and the guys at church all agree that the government should not have rewarded the bankers the way they did and that such severance packages are ludicrous. Everyone also views congress as dysfunctional at best. Dissatisfaction permeates our society.
i think we should be more like china and when rules are broken like the bankers did in the mortgage crisis you just hang the guilty.
We need to see a few class action lawsuits against directors of corporations who dole out money like this to losers.
I completely agree! It’s free market at it’s best. Let the true owners of a company get their power back and make it easier to sue these crony boards. Seem like this is what we have in common with China. We have corruption too – just to a slightly lesser degree. Our court system is also part of the problem – it’s too difficult to get justice.
For me, it is another example among many where management’s interest and actions is not truly aligned with shareholder’s welfare. Board members really need to go back to the drawing table and find other ways of “protecting“ the executives members. As investors, we have the responsibility and burden to read and make our homework when investing in companies. I know individuals who will spend countless hours on specs when buying a car or a boat. Yet, they very little about the companies they invest in….
I’ll agree that the severance package seems excessive. I also think that paying Posada $550 for every pitch he catches (assuming he plays all 162 games and catches every pitch) to be excessive. It is also not fair that someone in a union can work twice as hard as the guy next to him and get paid the same or less. But these are all contracts signed by the parties involved. Perhaps this is just another sign of the bubble economy we have created.
I also think the Occupy Wall Street folk are misdirecting their energies. They should be Occupying Pennsylvania Avenue instead. Did the bankers exploit the system, probably, but they did not create the system, Congress did.
The other problem is that this economy has not suffered in any great way in about 80 years. Virtually no one alive today in the USA knows what it is like to live through truely tough times. Now when the going gets tough, the masses cry. It is like weening a baby from a pacifier. There will be more fighting, screaming and temper tantrums. Just wait till this protest turns against the public union employees who fee they are entitled to extravagant benefits at the expense of their neighbors. It is a much different situation when the protestors live right next to those they are protesting against.
This is a sad tale of a once great value stock and company. I remember when I took a class and learned how to value a company using the same methods Warren Buffett looks at (Ben Graham’s Security Analysis) in 1990, Gannett was one of the darling value stocks. It’s price was growing every year about 10-15 percent along with the dividend they paid. Today when I look at the fundamentals; a PE at 5.09 and foward looking PE of 4.90. Sales have declined every year of Craig Dublow’s leadership as CEO. And for this he is rewarded with 37 million dollars? Is the board of Gannett insane? And we wonder why people are upset with corporations and Wall Street. This is the kind of fodder that promotes class warfare and the demonstrations we are seeing now. What is the board of Gannett thinking? 99 percent of Gannett stock is owned by institutions. Less than a tenth of one percent is owned by employees or insiders. Insiders have have sold 16 percent of their shares this past quarter alone. This is a dying company. Can it be turned around? It will take a new board and CEO to pull off that amazing feat. If Dublow had a heart, he’d give the tentire 37 million dollars to the 20,000 employees he given pink slips to. I’m amazed the shareholders don’t revolt and demand a complete overhaul of Gannett. Otherwise, this is a company that will soon be bankrupt. This is not only corporate greed but corporate stupidity and suicide by Chinese water torture. It’s probably only a matter of time before US Today, a once great publication is no more. But what the heck, Dublow will ge laughing it up in his retirement home in Sun Valley. And I’m betting after all this, Gannett still has a corporate jet.
I quote Gordon Gekko is everybody out their nuts! They make . all this money and fly on their golden parachutes while they are milking investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars. Henry Ford said it best and the American people are starting to wake up to it ” If the American public realized what the American Banking System was about their would be another revolution in this country”.
Thank you for posting this story John. I guess that the proponents of unfettered capitalism didn’t factor in limitless greed. Or maybe they did, it’s working pretty well for them! Citizens have the right, and dare I say, the duty, to speak out against injustice. When I read some of the posts above, I was taken aback by the vitriol expressed toward fellow Americans. I didn’t expect such language from the members of this website. I was taught to love my country, my neighbor, and to always walk a mile in others’ shoes. I know, some of you would call that a namby-pamby pile of schlock, but please don’t call me a whining cry-baby, that would hurt my feelings;) Like it or not, we are all in this mixed up society together. We will find a solution to America’s economic problems, but it will require critical thinking skills and a big dose of kindness. (Both of which you possess in abundance, John)
This is laissez-faire economics delivering what all free market economists predict. From memory when Adam Smith wrote The Wealth of Nations he had written a previous book The Theory of Moral Sentiments, so he must have considered that it was more than an abstract concept. There was no theory of a social contract between governments and their populations then and don’t forget we, in the
West did not achieve universal suffrage until the 20th Century. If taken to its extremity you arrive at anarcho-capitalism, but maybe that’s what the Tea Party in the US really strives for? I’m from the middle, a liberal conservative. If we want to put that concept of free market economics to the vote, I anticipate that there are so many ‘vested interests’ it will never get past the first hurdle or to quote the phrase ‘do turkeys vote for Christmas’?
PS I was a card carrying anarchist in my teens!
I also think it stinks. But it goes to show you this board is made up of a bunch of idiots who approved this kind of severance package.
Something was wrong with the company or industry. Just look at the chart (high left -> low right). 7+ years of decline. This one act (a nice golden handshake) shouldn’t surpirse anyone. The market wasn’t wrong.
I am reading a book by Prof. James K. Galbraith. In his book, The Predator State, He said,”The explosion in CEO pay packets, especially those rooted in stock options, raises a critcal question: Does the chief ececutive work for the company, or it the other way around?”
He believes the CEO pay explosion is an isse of corporate governance.
OWS is an awakening: We are dissatisfied with the economy and offshoring of jobs, the iron grip that big money has on both political parties and the government, the fact that not one financial criminal has even been jailed for the crash, for loss of optimism for the future of America, and for the endness pointless wars that kill and maim our youth and millions of innocent brown people worldwide. Tired of the Federal Reserve – a Delaware corporation, not part of the government like people think – printing fiat money, lending it out at interest and enslaving us to debt. Tired of stopping at checkpoints at airports and 100+ miles from the border in South Texas, Arizona, California, Hoover Dam, etc to be groped, irradiated and attacked by dogs. Tired of going along with the official narrative about major events just to fit in or because the truth hurts and everyone is too brainwashed and wrapped up with football or vapid TV shows to know any better. OWS is a middle finger in the eye of the global elite who rule like the Wizard of Oz from behind the curtain. Fight on, but follow the example of Gandhi – the tyrannical puppet enforcers will lose in the court of public opinion against a peaceful noncooperation movement.
Dear John Hopkins:
I just returned from New York and photographing the OWS, in New York!
THANK YOU JOHN FOR BEING BRAVE ENOUGH TO GIVE OWS SOME CREDIBLE THOUGHT.
Bottom line:
I have heard some people making negative generalizations about OWS, such as “the protestors are a bunch of crazy or homeless people” etc. These people who say this are those judging a book by its cover and have not taken time to look inside….they are nothing but unaware, inaccurate, uninformed and providing useless input to this earth!
In my humble opinion, you deserve credit John, for giving OWS some appreciation, especially since you are a respectable investing businessman.
As I walked inside the Liberty Plaza block of NY protestors for the last several days, I witnessed all walks of life. There are homeless people, who will be somewhere on the streets anyway—nothing new and why blame them? I saw college age, who have thought provoking signs that make anyone with a brain think twice about the neeed for OWS. I saw those dressed well enough to be a CEO, holding a sign about the need to stop the corruption of corporations.
Yes, there is a message inside of all the protestors…a message that SHOULD and NEEDS to be heard.
Somebody is giving money to the protestors too (thank god!), since as I walked in further, I see a counter serving sandwiches for those standing for endless hours, while giving up their work schedules. OWS are grass roots protestors, creating something from nothing,and it looks to be harder work than many of the complainers are doing in their daily jobs I would bet!
Now I have to wonder WHO or WHEN will the OWS message become more organized or shaped into a form that the less educated or aware can understand? Will the Democrats become involved since many of the OWS messages fit them best?
RIght now it seems that those with the highest awareness of the world (Like John Hopkins quiet frankly!) are the only ones who understand the need for the core OWS message. I am counting to see how long it takes for the rest of the world to catch the education!
Thanks John for your courage to get people thinking!
You are an educator of the business world and you are doing your job to help educate by writing this article which included reference to OWS having some valid points.
Keep it up John….
Gotta go, since I am exhausted from watching OWS in person,
Lisa
Does the OWS movement deserve attention.
You be the judge, here is a list of user submitted demands listed on the OWS web site.
Disclaimer: This is not an official list of demands. This is a forum post submitted by a single user. This content was not published by the OccupyWallSt.org collective. There is NO official list of demands because OWS is too unorganized to comprehend what OWS wants.
http://occupywallst.org/forum/proposed-list-of-demands-for-occupy-wall-st-moveme/
Demand one: Restoration of the living wage. This demand can only be met by ending “Freetrade” by re-imposing trade tariffs on all imported goods entering the American market to level the playing field for domestic family farming and domestic manufacturing as most nations that are dumping cheap products onto the American market have radical wage and environmental regulation advantages. Another policy that must be instituted is raise the minimum wage to $20.00 / hr.
Demand two: Institute a universal single payer healthcare system. To do this all private insurers must be banned from the healthcare market as their only effect on the health of patients is to take money away from doctors, nurses and hospitals preventing them from doing their jobs and hand that money to wall st. investors.
Demand three: Guaranteed living wage income regardless of employment.
Demand four: Free college education.
Demand five: Begin a fast track process to bring the fossil fuel economy to an end while at the same bringing the alternative energy economy up to energy demand.
Demand six: One trillion dollars in infrastructure (Water, Sewer, Rail, Roads and Bridges and Electrical Grid) spending now.
Demand seven: One trillion dollars in ecological restoration planting forests, reestablishing wetlands and the natural flow of river systems and decommissioning of all of America’s nuclear power plants.
Demand eight: Racial and gender equal rights amendment.
Demand nine: Open borders migration. anyone can travel anywhere to work and live.
Demand ten: Bring American elections up to international standards of a paper ballot precinct counted and recounted in front of an independent and party observers system.
Demand eleven: Immediate across the board debt forgiveness for all. Debt forgiveness of sovereign debt, commercial loans, home mortgages, home equity loans, credit card debt, student loans and personal loans now! All debt must be stricken from the “Books.” World Bank Loans to all Nations, Bank to Bank Debt and all Bonds and Margin Call Debt in the stock market including all Derivatives or Credit Default Swaps, all 65 trillion dollars of them must also be stricken from the “Books.” And I don’t mean debt that is in default, I mean all debt on the entire planet period.
Demand twelve: Outlaw all credit reporting agencies.
Demand thirteen: Allow all workers to sign a ballot at any time during a union organizing campaign or at any time that represents their yeah or nay to having a union represent them in collective bargaining or to form a union.
These demands will create so many jobs it will be completely impossible to fill them without an open borders policy.
$37 million …. well, unfortunately his company nosedived like alot of other companies and he did bring the company back to profitablity and Gannet investors knew when to sell high and buy low (they did, didn’t they ?). He didn’t do anything illegal or stupid, did he ? $37 million …. it’s alittle high, especially within the context of our current economic situation. In retrospect, officials at Credit Suisse refused bonuses a few years ago because of our then current economic situation; a class act (honestly). The upshot: sometimes humility and empathy’s a good thing. OWS seems to be an economic equivalent of “No Justice, No Peace”; in the nicest way possible with snacks included. Have a nice day.
I agree. I am a pharmacist; if i forget to dot an i i could hurt or kill someone. There is accountability on my job. Obviously, there wasnt any there! Hopefully some of our colleagues shorted that one!!!!!
Here is what I dont understand !! When these guys are initially ;hired, the board should have multiple candidates to pick from. It would seem if Mr smith wants a 37million severance package as part of his agreement, the board should say “go F @@ yourself. We have other options” Since this competition does not happen, I can only conclude that Mr Smithj is hired with no competition. Why would this be when there is
unemployment at every corporate level ? There are many candidates. Tells ;you the corporate boards are incompetent and useless, but also that top executives are hired sole source based on illegal relationships between boards of directors.
In my opinion, this is classes! We as “worker-a-bees” are suppose to follow the Ethical rules of the company, accept underpayment if the company is not profitable, accept little raises when they are profitable, work our butts off and be happy we have a job and much more… and the upper Executive ring does’nt have to follow any of this because we suppose to believe without them we would not have a job. I don’t believe this is about government, we as “worker-a-bees” make a difference in the company; from the janitor to the Executive. Those of you (meaning worker-a-bees not executives) who believe you deserve less treatment than an executive who fails, I say study and think about it lot more and hopefully, you will soon come to a conclusion that you are treated unfairly. The government is not setting compensation policies, but this movement has waken up a lot of people to think for themselves and act!!!!
Unfortunately typical …. just more evidence that many (if not most) corporate executives are really only thinking about giving each other well padded contracts, benefits and fat bonuses using the shareholders money. The shareholder is the lackey!
Just remember this had to be approved by someone/board unless it was contractual. IF it was approved by the Board of Directors then the need to look at how all BoD’s are made up. In my mind they all scratch each others back cause they are all on each others BoD’s. There is no accountability for their action since they are voted in my either management control or mutual funds which control the % needed for approval.
There’s no way to hold any of them accountable.
Stefanos
I was with GM . They did the same with a CEO SMITH. We have to stop this as a share holder. I am now or ever will be again a share holder of GM. This is the only way I know how to adress this as a share holder.
This has been going on for about 20 years. Where were you John back in 2000? Don’t you read the Wall Street Journal? This is reported everyday. It is also disclosed in the 10-K’s and annual reports. Its cause is the cronyism of the interlocking boards of directors, the complicity of the board’s compensation committee and the recommendations of the management compensation consultants, whose ranks have grown these last 20 years It is fed by the utter contempt of the shareholders by the corporaton boards of directors and management.
What do you OWS care what J.P. Morgan makes, or Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller, or Corny Vanderbilt? The only reason you care is because YOU pay income taxes. Those guys never paid income taxes. Nobody minded what they made when there were no income taxes, so it is income taxes which creates the unhappiness, the sense of oppression, and the anger.
Do you see why income tax was forbidden by the Constitution? The Sixteenth Amendment WAS your Soak-the-Rich proposal and you babies are STILL crying about the aristocracy like Madame LeFarge at the wrong time of the month. Your solution didn’t work, did it?
Does anyone in this incoherent rabble of malcontents know what Steve Jobs’ severance package was, or how much the State of California and the Federal government is going to make his unhappy family pay them for the privilege of dying?
Your statements are founded upon supposition and are more than likely incorrect. It is not possile for you to know the motives or basis for anger of the majority of the protesters, yet you base your whole argument upon what you imagine to be true. But that’s ok, it is your opinion. In addition, I believe that estates pass to spouses with no federal estate tax. In any event, unfair and ridiculously excessive estate taxes are easily subverted by various legal maneuvers, especially when one has a few years to prepare for death. The great thing is that you can express your opinions in America. The not so great thing is the way you worded your post. Calling people “babies” or “incoherent” is unbecoming and detracts from your credibility.
I was surprised that most comments favored the protesters. I thought most investors were conservative thinkers that usually sided with business. I was wrong – and very glad to see fellow investors complaining about the business establishment.
I’m with the protestors in spirit and for a few hours I was with them in person. Can’t agree with everything – some of the signs are a little nutty, some suggest or condone violence. But I think it’s obvious that Wall Street wrecked our economy. The people at the top collected big bonuses and left us to clean up the mess.
Thanks for bringing this to my attention John. I like the OWS movement, hopefully it will grow in numbers and get more positive attention. On the Gannett article, tax those people at 90%, whatever happened to shareholder voting, doesn’t anyone watch these guys. F the banks, I get something like .50% interest on a savings account. Long live the OWS movement, how can i contribute money!
I can understand the frustrations the protesters are experiencing, however I think they should be in Washington not Wall Street. Unfortunately this country has gotten away from its core values, and those on top are taking advantage; they are like children with their hand in the cookie jar, staring at their parents while doing it and daring them to stop them. I do believe in limited government, however when there is something that is harming the majority of the people in this country, that is when government should step up and govern.
The situation could be comprehended in this way:
- Dubow could have earned more, say $370m, if he run the company well.
- Dubow is a blue blood, which group has a different rewarding scale from general public (red blood)’s.
The social inequality nowadays appears very very very huge!