More Awesomeness: Congressman Alan Grayson Grills the Citigroup CEO on "The Worst Deal Since Manhattan Was Sold for $24 in Trinkets"

by Damozel | Those who are having a hard time coming to terms with the revelations about America's corporate superclass may find this an edifying spectacle. 

"Heads you win, tails we lose," Rep.Grayson (appointed to the influential House Financial Services Committee on Jan. 8) remarks.  Grayson is of course well qualified to serve as the advocate for the people. Before going to Congress, he made a name for himself suing war profiteers under the False Claims Act. (Check out this Vanity Fair article here.) 

The most interesting part of this video is Grayson's restrained disgust and tamped-down anger as he questions the CEO and Pandit's nervous deprecation of it.....So for the duration of the video, I actually felt quite sorry for Vikram Pandit, who was visibly trying to cope with a bad case of dry mouth and an overwhelming wish to be elsewhere.  Also --- as members of the corporate superclass go -- he's most definitely not the worst. .

On February 11th, 2009, Citigroup CEO Dr. Vikram Pandit testified to Congress that he has told his board of directors to set his salary at $1 with no bonus until the company makes money again. He also struck an apologetic tone for letting the bank consider buying a private jet plane after receiving some $45 billion in bailout money. The bank ultimately scrapped the plan under pressure from U.S. President Barack Obama. While the White House is planning to help struggling homeowners, Citibank along with J.P. Morgan & Co would halt new foreclosures on owner-occupied home loans through March 6. (Wiki)

But then I remembered that $216 million payout he got from Citigroup a year ago. And Wikipedia tells me he lives in an $18m apartment on New York's upper West Side, which even a provincial such as I can easily recognize is a pricey sort of accommodation at a prestigious address.  (Where I live, that would buy you a couple of apartment complexes and a foreclosed house or three.)  No doubt it's convenient to his work.

So then I stopped feeling sorry for him, just like that.  Yes, I think he'll scrape by, even on $1 a year for the rest of his life.

I shall save my sympathy for people with less of a cushion, such as, just to name two, you and me.

$216 million!  Here's how they do it uptown, in case you were wondering:

Call him Citigroup's quarter-billion-dollar man.

That is how much Vikram Pandit was paid for taking over as chief executive of the embattled bank. Pandit received about $165.2 million in connection with the sale of Old Lane Partners, the investment firm Citigroup bought last April for as much as $800 million to lure him to the company. He received an additional $2.7 million in the roughly six months he served as head of Citigroup's investment bank and alternative investments group.

And in January, Pandit was given a sign-on grant of stock and performance-based options worth over $48 million, though the options currently no cash value. That brings the total to at least $216 million....

In theory, Pandit and three other top executives received only their salary in 2007 because of Citigroup's poor performance — shares tumbled 47 percent, and the bank had more than $20 billion in write-offs...

In practice, they were given multimillion-dollar deferred cash and equity awards in January.... (IHT 3-14-08)

Why a quarter of a billion?

Citigroup's compensation committee defended its actions in the statement, calling them necessary to keep top managers. It made retention equity awards, the filings said, "recognizing that difficult economic conditions make rewarding key talent especially important." (IHT)

Key talent, eh?  No doubt. But let's just take another look at cause versus effect, bearing in mind that we're talking about how Citigroup rewarded him in 2007, before most of us were aware of what was about to hit that proverbial fan: 

[I]n 2007 because of Citigroup's poor performance...shares tumbled 47 percent, and the bank had more than $20 billion in write-offs. (IHT 3-14-08)

Thank Christ for Alan Grayson and may we see in the coming years many more advocates for the people stepping up to replace the all too corruptible current crop of career politicians who represent themselves first and the people second.

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