by Deb Cupples | Yesterday, the Financial Times reported:
"Germany’s new finance minister has echoed Chinese warnings about the growing threat of fresh global asset price bubbles, fueled by low US interest rates and a weak dollar.
"Wolfgang Schäuble’s comments highlight official concern in Europe that the risk of further financial market turbulence has been exacerbated by the exceptional steps taken by central banks and governments to combat the crisis."
I can't say that I fully understand the details of that statement, but I do understand this other one:
"Separately, Jean-Claude Trichet, ECB president, issued his strongest warning yet that banks must control pay and bonuses.
"Striking a noticeably stiffer tone, Mr Trichet told the Frankfurt conference: 'Profits earned should be used, as a priority, to build capital and reserves, rather than be paid out as dividends or excessive compensation.'”
Yes! And I'll take it a step further and apply it to large, non-bank companies:
For the sake of our nation's economy, more of a company's revenues should be reinvested back into the companies (instead of funneled by the million into executives' personal bank accounts).
When I say "reinvested," I mean used to prevent layoffs, to create jobs, to pay down debts, to buy things that companies need in order to grow....
It's really simple: every company dollar that goes into executives' personal coffers is one less dollar to grow the company, pay down debts, or create jobs.
Last month, our nation's unemployment rate hit 10.2% -- the highest in 26 years. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says that more than 15 million people in our nation are unemployed.
The more people who are unemployed, the less money they have to spend at restaurants, clothing stores, appliance stores.... The less money such businesses take in, the less money they have to keep people employed -- and so on.
As a shareholder in a few public companies, I'm very unhappy with the long-standing habit of the executives and managers who run public companies essentially looting the shareholders' money pot.
Of course, we can't tell private businesses what to do with their money. I get that.
But you'd think, especially after eight years of Bush-style lip-service about patriotism, that the folks running our big public companies would -- in order to help our nation's economy -- ease up on the amount they loot from the companies they run.
But no. As we saw last year, corporate execs tend to pursue their own personal ends, make questionable excuses when a crisis of their own causing hits, then lobby the government for financial aid that amounts to welfare.
Something is seriously wrong. If things don't change substantially, the consequences could be dire for all of us Americans -- except the relative few who've stockpiled millions of shareholder or taxpayer dollars, which they'll be able to use to set up homestead in Europe or the Caribbean after things go to pot within our homeland.Other Buck Naked Politics Posts:
* Real Bonuses Based on Fake Profits
* Cutting Executive Pay Would Save Jobs
* Bank Execs Expect Bigger Bonuses than Last Year
* Are Bailout Funds Being Misused?
* Execs Made Millions While Driving Companies into Ditch
* Cong. Grayson Supports Pay for Performance Act
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