When Brits accepted money from His Majesty's government for
military service, they were said "to take the
king's shilling." That obligated them to serve, and
afterwards they could ill complain about being shipped off to
fight a dubious war in an equally dubious colony far
from home. In fact, all sorts
of trickery was employed to get men "to take the
king's shilling," thereby putting even the reluctant under arms.
No tricks were used to get American banks and other financial
companies to take the king's shilling (or billions of
the president's dollars). And now they are paying the
price, as the salary czar rules on company compensation.
Reports
ABC News:
Who will get to keep his or her multimillion-dollar pay package
and who will have to settle for less? It's a question that will
face Obama administration pay czar Kenneth Feinberg this week
as he starts reviewing compensation plans for the 100 highest
paid executives at AIG, Citigroup, Bank of America, General
Motors, GMAC, Chrysler and Chrysler Financial.
The seven firms, which have received the most in bailout funds
from the government, must submit the plans to Feinberg by
Thursday.
Feinberg, who will focus on the companies' 25 highest paid
executives first, will have the power to scale back pay
packages except for those set in contracts dated before Feb.
12, which will be "grandfathered" out of the government's
compensation restrictions and Feinberg's authority.
Nevertheless, some say, even if Feinberg can't use the the law
to force compensation down, he can still employ public pressure
to convince firms to voluntarily renegotiate pay packages.
Making business benefits a matter of political discretion
obviously is ridiculous. But not as ridiculous as forcing
taxpayers to bail out failing
businesses. Unfortunately, we all are paying a high
price for the bail-out economy.
