No, it didn't. It limited bonuses only. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/13/AR2009021303288.html Critics of excessive executive pay assert that companies have always found ways around compensation rules. Yesterday, they noted that more stringent measures -- such as a $400,000 cap on all forms of compensation -- did not survive last-minute wrangling by House and Senate leaders on the final compromise stimulus bill. To offset the new rules, inserted by Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), compensation boards could just significantly raise the base salary of executives, the critics said. "Congress missed a huge opportunity to set a strict and measurable limit on executive pay," said Sarah Anderson, a director at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington. "I'm afraid companies will find ways to shift compensation to other pots and continue to make massive payouts that have so outraged the American people." HuffingtonPost article: Unions Demanding Obama Fire BofA CEO In Wake Of Wagoner Ouster oust·er Pronunciation: ˈau̇s-tər Function:noun Etymology:Anglo-French, from oster, ouster to oust Date:1531 1 a: a wrongful dispossession b: a judgment removing an officer or depriving a corporation of a franchise 2: expulsion Bloomberg article Firing Wagoner Became Necessary for CEO in Denial He’d been summoned by Steven Rattner, the Wall Street dealmaker running President Barack Obama’s auto task force, which is forcing GM to file for bankruptcy today. Wagoner had come prepared to discuss his latest plan to justify even more federal aid. What he didn’t know was that Rattner’s team had decided it needed to break GM in order to fix it, and Wagoner was standing in the way. Wagoner was unwilling to consider bankruptcy in order to wipe out the $46.5 billion of bank and bond debt GM had at the end of 2008, break dealer contracts and radically reduce labor costs. Rattner asked Wagoner for a one-on-one chat in his U.S. Treasury building office. He told Wagoner it was time to step down. Wagoner returned to the meeting room and told Chief Operating Officer Fritz Henderson and Chief Financial Officer Ray Young, who were waiting, that he was fired. Henderson and Young were as shocked as Wagoner when they heard the news. Some board members were furious. “I want out,” said one GM director. “When they made the decision to fire Wagoner without talking to the board, that did it. We had a conversation with Rattner. I told him it’s our responsibility to pick the CEO.” (My note: it is the Board of Directors that hires and fires the CEO of corporations). Govt. spending isn't all bad, it's just inefficient and excessive borrowing kills the private sector's ability to borrow. There's only so much money to lend. Excessive debts mean excessive amounts of the tax dollars collected are being given out to the rich as interest (they're the ones who can afford to loan the govt. money) instead of being able to be spent on your favorite pet programs. What really matters is what the money is spent on in the govt. budgets. Some things literally produce shit (giving people food vs teaching them to earn their own food or finding a job for them). Some things are actual investments that pay dividends for decades (Marshall Plan, VHA, GI Bill, taking out Saddam). We're spending on things that produce shit. I don't know if you're old enough to remember Reagan - I am. The guy came into office and inherited a terrible economy: inflation was double digits, interest rates (mortgages) near 20%, unemployment as high as it is now. He articulated a plan, explained the Laffer Curve, and told us things would be worse for a year and then they'd get better. Things were pretty tense in that year and people doubted it would work out, but like clockwork it did. People may not have agreed with the plan, but it was well articulated and it was well Reasoned and made sense. Obama is renowned as a communicator, yet there is no articulation of any plan that makes any sense. One week, it seems that there's an emergency and we have to spend money to keep Democrats in office with hundreds of $billions in pork barrel spending, and the next week "we're out of money." One can only deduce what the plan is, if there really is one, by watching what they do. The plan seems to be "borrow our way out of debt" which makes zero sense and flies in the face of Reason. Nobody's writing anything that makes sense on his teleprompters. Get it? Blindly defend the guy no matter what, people do that. We're all going to look back on this and curse the 80% tax bracket that everyone will be paying, and this administration will be the sole source of decades of pain and the death of social security and medicare. Carry on.
Ok, thanks for the correction. I was wrong. None of that stuff contradicts anything I said - Wagoner wasn't fired. He resigned. There is a difference, when the subject is whether there was authority to fire him. That was my point. Well, yes, but perhaps they can make cars that aren't shit in the future. I'm about the same age as you. barfo
Read again: Bloomberg article Firing Wagoner Became Necessary for CEO in Denial He’d been summoned by Steven Rattner, the Wall Street dealmaker running President Barack Obama’s auto task force, which is forcing GM to file for bankruptcy today. Wagoner had come prepared to discuss his latest plan to justify even more federal aid. What he didn’t know was that Rattner’s team had decided it needed to break GM in order to fix it, and Wagoner was standing in the way. Wagoner was unwilling to consider bankruptcy in order to wipe out the $46.5 billion of bank and bond debt GM had at the end of 2008, break dealer contracts and radically reduce labor costs. Rattner asked Wagoner for a one-on-one chat in his U.S. Treasury building office. He told Wagoner it was time to step down. Wagoner returned to the meeting room and told Chief Operating Officer Fritz Henderson and Chief Financial Officer Ray Young, who were waiting, that he was fired. Henderson and Young were as shocked as Wagoner when they heard the news. Some board members were furious. “I want out,” said one GM director. “When they made the decision to fire Wagoner without talking to the board, that did it. We had a conversation with Rattner. I told him it’s our responsibility to pick the CEO.”
Yeah, so what, he says he was fired. Legally he wasn't. Him saying he was doesn't make it so. Rattner doesn't have the authority to fire him, therefore he cannot have fired him. This isn't just a semantic debate. You wanted to know where Obama got the authority to fire him. I replied that he doesn't have that authority, and that he didn't fire him. You haven't provided anything that contradicts that. What he did have is leverage to force him out, and he used that leverage. Where did he get that leverage? By providing the bailout money. I, as an individual, have neither authority nor leverage to fire him. Obama had leverage, but no authority. The GM board had authority and leverage (but failed to act). If Wagoner had pictures of the board in compromising positions, then they would have had authority but no leverage. barfo
