Wait—a Specific
Posted on September 17th, 2008 in Uncategorized | 6 Comments »
ABC News reports on one specific proposal that McCain has to reform Wall Street—or at least one provided by one of McCain’s aides: To stop “multi-million dollar payouts” to CEOs like his adviser/token woman Carly Fiorina, he would allow a company’s shareholders to vote on executive compensation.
Where to start?
First of all, it is simply bizarre to hear a Republican propose such a profoundly intrusive economic idea. I suppose McCain’s okay with that, but will his base be?
Second, it’s just a silly idea. No corporation would voluntarily agree to this, as it would certainly impede their ability to conduct business and to hire the best executives they can. (Imagine if Harvard alums got to vote on Drew Faust’s pay.)
And the idea that the federal government could mandate such a plan—well, I don’t know if that’s technically possible, but it would never, ever happen.
This is not a credible economic reform…..
6 Responses
9/17/2008 8:52 am
He wants to give a business’s owners the right to decide how much their #1 employee earns? The nerve!
9/17/2008 10:39 am
Shareholders already have that power; they can sell their stock. To give them the literal power of voting yes or no on employee compensation sounds great, but it’s really not viable.
9/17/2008 11:43 am
A silly, mock-populist idea, but the university is a poor analogy (alumni are nowhere in the legal chain of authority). But here’s a question someone should ask him: would this apply to the American people being able to zero the president’s salary?
9/17/2008 12:50 pm
And then there is the obvious point that none of this would have prevented the current crisis. The problem with Bear, Lehman, etc (even Fannie and Freddie) was their CEOs were overpaid? That shows an appalling ignorance of the current crisis and the financial markets in general.
9/17/2008 1:26 pm
Rich,
Did you see the update to the article you linked?
UPDATE: Obama has co-sponsored a bill with eight other Democrats that is currently before the Senate Banking Committee, S.1181, that would amend the Securities Act of 1934 to include a separate shareholder vote on executive compensation. McCain is not a co-sponsor.
Anyone expecting credible economic reform ideas from either McCain or Obama is delusional.
9/17/2008 2:13 pm
Thanks, P-L. That’s disappointing on Obama’s part. I guess that, on economics, they’re both demagoguing away.