NewsTrust - Corporate Governance - Most Recent Stories: News

Why Keep Geithner?

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

MSNBC - By Dylan Ratigan - Nov. 02 (News Analysis) - A year ago it was revealed to the American people that our banking system was a legalized Ponzi scheme in which bank and insurance CEOs paid themselves billions of dollars in personal compensation to lend and insure assets with money they didn't have

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Debates: Executive pay

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - Oct. 28 (Other) - Debate statement: "This house believes that on the whole, senior executives are worth what they are paid."

NewsTrust Rating: 3.7 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Bonus Battle

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Link TV - By Erin Coker - Sep. 19 (News Analysis) - The Fed stepped up today with the US version of a worldwide backlash on bonuses for bankers. Led by French President Nicholas Sarkozy, this is another example of the G20 nations' rising power. Sarkozy is dragging a reluctant US along on his crusade to curb banker's pay. It only works if the whole world does it - and that could never have happened in the past, even though majorities of Americans have steam coming out of their ears over the obscene bonuses.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average - 5 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Flushing Blackwater

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Nation - By Jeremy Scahill - Aug. 26 (Investigative Report) - Blackwater, the private mercenary company owned by Erik Prince, has been thrust back into the spotlight by a series of stunning revelations about its role in covert US programs. Since at least 2002, Blackwater has worked for the CIA in Afghanistan and Pakistan on "black" contracts. On August 19, the New York Times revealed that the company was, in fact, a central part of a secret CIA assassination program that Dick Cheney allegedly ordered concealed from Congress. The paper then reported that Blackwater remains a key player in the widening air war in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where it arms drone aircraft. These disclosures follow allegations--made under oath by former Blackwater employees--that Prince murdered or facilitated the murder of potential government informants and that he "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe."

NewsTrust Rating: 5.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

During Crisis, Paulson’s Calls to Goldman Posed Ethics Test

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Gretchen Morgenson, Don Van Natta Jr. - Aug. 09 (News Analysis) - Months after Henry M. Paulson Jr. left office, questions linger about the former Treasury secretary’s interactions with Goldman Sachs during the financial crisis.Before he became President George W. Bush’s Treasury secretary in 2006, Henry M. Paulson Jr. agreed to hold himself to a higher ethical standard than his predecessors. He not only sold all his holdings in Goldman Sachs, the investment bank he had run, but also specifically said that he would avoid any substantive interaction with Goldman executives for his entire term unless he first obtained an ethics waiver from the government.

NewsTrust Rating: 2.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

CEOs paid more even as profits fall

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Baltimore Sun - By Jamie Smith Hopkins - Aug. 09 (Special Report) - Chief executives of public companies have long had a ready answer when criticized about high pay: It's all about company performance. That argument has been put to the test by the toughest financial environment since the Great Depression. If performance is the standard, many of the Baltimore area's top-earning executives seem to be on shaky ground. To see how last year's financial crisis and worsening recession affected pay, The Baltimore Sun analyzed the 20 companies in the metro area that paid their CEOs at least $1 million. Seventeen reported increases in their chief executives' compensation, even though just as many firms ended their fiscal year with lower-priced stock - substantially lower, for the most part.

NewsTrust Rating: 2.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Single-Payer & Interlocking Directorates

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

FAIR - By Kate Murphy - Aug. 06 (Investigative Report) - A single-payer plan would allow the delivery of healthcare to remain private, but the government would pay for it out of a single federal health insurance fund. Like Medicare or Canada’s healthcare program, it would cut out the middleman by bypassing private health insurance companies. But such companies are well-represented on the boards of directors of media conglomerates—a factor that may help explain the blackout of such a popular possibility for reform.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.4 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

$100 Million Payday Poses Problem for Pay Czar

Sun, 02 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By David Segal - Aug. 02 (News Report) - In a few weeks, the Treasury Department’s czar of executive pay will have to answer this $100 million question: Should Andrew J. Hall get his bonus? Mr. Hall, the 58-year-old head of Phibro, a small commodities trading firm in Westport, Conn., is due for a nine-figure payday, his cut of profits from a characteristically aggressive year of bets in the oil market. There is little doubt that Mr. Hall is owed the money under his contract. The problem is that his contract is with Citigroup, which was saved with roughly $45 billion in taxpayer aid.

NewsTrust Rating: 2.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Some E-Books Are More Equal Than Others

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By David Pogure - Jul. 17 (News Report) - This morning, hundreds of Amazon Kindle owners awoke to discover that books by a certain famous author had mysteriously disappeared from their e-book readers. These were books that they had bought and paid for—thought they owned. But no, apparently the publisher changed its mind about offering an electronic edition, and apparently Amazon, whose business lives and dies by publisher happiness, caved. It electronically deleted all books by this author from people’s Kindles and credited their accounts for the price. This is ugly for all kinds of reasons. Amazon says that this sort of thing is “rare,” but that it can happen at all is unsettling; we’ve been taught to believe that e-books are, you know, just like books, only better. Already, we’ve learned that they’re not really like books, in that once we’re finished reading them, we can’t resell or even donate them. But now we learn that all sales may not even be final. As one of my readers noted, it’s like Barnes & Noble sneaking into our homes in the middle of the night, taking some books that we’ve been reading off our nightstands, and leaving us a check on the coffee table. You want to know the best part? The juicy, plump, dripping irony? The author who was the victim of this Big Brotherish plot was none other than George Orwell. And the books were “1984” and “Animal Farm.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.7 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Why Silk Soy Milk's Parent Company Is Throwing American Farmers and Consumers Under the Bus | Environment | AlterNet

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Ari LeVaux - Jul. 15 (News Analysis) - Even as demand for organic food continues to explode, organic farmers in America are getting thrown under the beet cart they helped build. The Chinese are taking over market share, especially of vegetables and agricultural commodities like soy, thanks to several American-based multinational food corporations that have hijacked the organic bandwagon they only recently jumped onto.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.7 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Bankruptcy Judge Approves GM Sale

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Tomoeh Murakami - Jul. 06 (News Report) - General Motors won permission late Sunday night from a federal bankruptcy judge to sell its assets to a new government-backed company, setting the stage for the largest U.S. carmaker to complete a historic restructuring plan that is at the heart of the Obama administration's efforts to overhaul the ailing auto industry.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.6 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Historic Overhaul of Finance Rules

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - By Damian Paletta - Jun. 18 (News Report) - President Barack Obama urged policy makers to rewrite the rules governing U.S. finance, unveiling far-reaching proposals that would affect nearly every aspect of banking and markets. The White House hopes Congress can complete work on the plan by year's end. But it is sure to face opposition both from some on the right who say it threatens to throttle free markets and others on the left who say it doesn't go far enough. Some in Congress are cautioning against haste.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.5 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Regulators Feud as Banking System Overhauled

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Stephen Labaton, Edmund L. Andrews - Jun. 14 (News Report) - Two of the nation’s most powerful bank regulators were once again at each other’s throats. At a public meeting three weeks ago, John C. Dugan, the comptroller of the currency, blasted a proposal to impose stiff new insurance fees on banks as unfair to the largest banks, which he regulates. The financial crisis stemmed in part from problems at small banks, he insisted. Sheila C. Bair, chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the regulator for many smaller, community banks, could barely hide her contempt. The large banks, she said, had wreaked havoc on the system, only to be bailed out by “hundreds of billions, if not trillions, in government assistance.” She added, “Fairness is always an issue.”

NewsTrust Rating: 2.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Restraints on executive pay: Attacking the corporate gravy train

Fri, 29 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - May. 29 (Special Report) - Strict limits on performance-related pay at banks could also do more harm than good. One reason American business has thrived for so long is that its leaders have had a stronger incentive to perform well than those of other countries (see chart 1). Limiting the ability of financial institutions to pay sensible bonuses will simply prolong their woes. Edward Liddy, who was brought in to run American International Group (AIG) after the ailing insurer was rescued by the government, recently gave warning that executives cannot be expected to toil 24 hours a day without being adequately compensated for doing so. Mr Liddy, who plans to leave AIG once a successor has been found, cut his base salary to $1 a year in November 2008 following howls of protest over the pay of bosses at firms that had received bail-outs.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average - 4 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Sitting Pretty

Sun, 24 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Kathy M. Kristof - May. 24 (Special Report) - If ever there was a year that you'd expect the state's top corporate dogs to get hit in the wallet, 2008 would be the one. The stock market crashed, bankruptcies soared and millions of workers were sent packing -- at a time when public outrage over excessive pay for top executives reached an all-time high.

NewsTrust Rating: 2.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

President Obama signs law to allow Pentagon to scrap defense contractor projects with cost overruns

Fri, 22 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Daily News - By Kenneth R. Bazinet - May. 22 (News Report) - "I reject the notion that we have to waste billions of taxpayer dollars to keep this nation secure," Obama said in a Rose Garden ceremony. "When it comes to purchasing weapons systems and developing defense projects, the choice we face is between investments that are designed to keep the American people safe and those that are simply designed to make a defense company or a contractor rich," he added. Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2009/05/22/2009-05-22_president_obama_signs_law_to_allow_pentagon_to_scrap_defence_contractors_project.html#ixzz0GGsn1fRm&B

NewsTrust Rating: 3.6 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Stimulus money going to scofflaw companies

Thu, 21 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Salon - By Michael Grabell, David Epstein - May. 21 (Special Report) - One company paid nearly $1 million for destroying seagrass in the Florida Keys marine sanctuary. Another settled a discrimination case after federal investigators found it refused to hire black employees. A third firm was rebuked by the Army for poorly screening the interrogators it hired -- interrogators who later abused prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Despite those problems, the three companies have won millions of dollars in contracts under the economic stimulus package.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.8 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Advanta's painful plastic surgery

Mon, 18 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Fortune - By Colin Barr - May. 18 (News Report) - The credit card business has grown so wretched that one major issuer is clipping its customers' cards and giving its investors a haircut. Advanta (ADVNA), the nation's No. 14 card issuer and a top lender to small businesses, said last week it will shut down its card business to stem losses. The move is a momentous one, because credit cards bring in nearly all Advanta's revenue. The company will close customer accounts next month, leaving a million borrowers looking for credit at a time when lenders are pulling back. And Advanta's small-business customers aren't the only ones in limbo: So are the investors whose bond purchases financed Advanta's expansion over the past decade.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.5 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Google is accused of UK tax avoidance

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Terry Macalister - Apr. 20 (News Report) - Google has joined the list of companies facing criticism over tax avoidance after public accounts showed it paid only £600,000 in UK corporation tax despite local revenues of more than £1.25bn.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The Mindset of an AIG executive

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Business Week - By Diane Brady - Mar. 25 (News Analysis) - A few things struck me in the “resignation letter” of Jake DeSantis, an executive vice president of the American International Group’s financial products unit. (People don’t normally forward their letters of resignation to The New York Times) First, of course, is his justified sense of outrage at having been abandoned by his boss, AIG chief Ed Liddy, before Congress and at having his bonus essentially taken away. “Like you, I was asked to work for an annual salary of $1, and I agreed out of a sense of duty to the company and to the public officials who have come to its aid. Having now been let down by both, I can no longer justify spending 10, 12, 14 hours a day away from my family for the benefit of those who have let me down.” But a few other sentences stand out in my mind as emblematic of the mindset that has created some of this mess.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average - 4 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Costco, Starbucks, Whole Foods Offer Compromise on Union Bill

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Bloomberg - By Holly Rosenkrantz - Mar. 22 (News Report) - Starbucks Corp., Whole Foods Market Inc. and Costco Wholesale Corp. are offering a compromise on union-backed “card-check” legislation that U.S. business groups are spending millions of dollars to defeat. The legislation, known at the Employee Free Choice Act, would allow employees to form unions by signing cards rather than through a secret-ballot election. Under the compromise being sought by the three companies, management could still demand a secret ballot election, and the provision of the bill that requires binding arbitration for union contracts would be dropped. Penalties would be increased for companies that take action against workers before union elections and refuse to participate in collective bargaining.

NewsTrust Rating: 2.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

AIG fallout burnishes some, taints others

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Hill - By Michael O'Brien - Mar. 22 (News Analysis) - After a week of talk over controversial bonuses handed out to executives at AIG, those on the winning and losing end of the political fallout are either licking their chops or licking their wounds while wondering how long bonuses will dominate the news. An eclectic group of winners may be hoping that bonuses at AIG and other companies stay in the headlines after showing their political potency last week. Perhaps the foremost beneficiaries are two Republican, would-be lawmakers who have targeted their opponents over the bonuses, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who seized on the AIG news and shifted the focus away from the House.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.7 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Bailout King AIG to Pay Millions in Bonuses

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By David Cho, Brady Dennis - Mar. 15 (News Report) - Insurance giant American International Group will award hundreds of millions of dollars in employee bonuses and retention pay despite a confrontation Wednesday between the chief executive and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner. But the company agreed to revise some executive payments after what AIG's leader, Edward M. Liddy, called a "difficult" conversation. The bonuses and other payments have been exasperating government officials, who have committed $170 billion to keep the company afloat -- far more than has been offered to any other financial firm.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.8 average - 5 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

A.I.G. Planning $165 Million in Bonuses After Huge Bailout

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Edmund L. Andrews, Peter Baker - Mar. 15 (News Report) - The American International Group, which has received more than $170 billion in taxpayer bailout money from the Treasury and Federal Reserve, plans to pay about $165 million in bonuses by Sunday to 400 executives in the same business unit that brought the company to the brink of collapse last year.Word of the bonuses last week stirred such deep consternation inside the Obama administration that Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner told the firm they were unacceptable and demanded they be renegotiated, a senior administration official said. But the bonuses will go forward because lawyers said the firm was contractually obligated to pay them.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.7 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Treasury Demands AIG Cut Bonuses; $165 Million Looms

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Bloomberg - By Hugh Son, Robert Schmidt - Mar. 15 (News Report) - American International Group Inc., the insurer saved from collapse by a $170 billion taxpayer bailout, was ordered by the U.S. Treasury to scale back its $1 billion plan to give retention pay and bonuses. AIG agreed to reduce some retention payments in 2009 by 30 percent and tie bonuses to the company’s recovery, according to a person briefed on the matter and a letter from AIG Chief Executive Officer Edward Liddy. The New York-based insurer still plans to distribute about $165 million on March 15 because of legally binding contracts, said the person, who declined to be identified because the talks weren’t public.

NewsTrust Rating: 2.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer