I got really ticked off when Congress was asking the questions about whether these guys would be willing to work for $1 and why they flew their corporate jets there. Our national debt is escalating at record levels and our Congress aren't working for $1 a year nor or they giving up any of their perks. It's not like the auto makers CEOs are making what the CEOs in the oil industry are making, yet they are similar in size, per the Fortune 500 article I quoted earlier in this thread. The difference? We HAVE to pay $4 for a gallon of gas because we have to get to work. If cars doubled in price, nobody would buy one, they would do whatever they could to get their current one running.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12519975/
Chevron's CEO received $37 million in total compensation last year. Conoco Phillips' CEO got $17 million. Those are big numbers, but experts say they are in line with Wall Street's inflated standards.
Then there's Exxon's CEO and his stunning $400 million pay and retirement package — which an industry spokesman still defends.
http://www.leftlanenews.com/gm-chief...ll-salary.html
GM has raised the salary of its Chief Executive, Rick Wagoner, ending his self-imposed pay-cut dating back to 2006. As previously reported, Bill Ford is fighting a similar move from the management over at Ford. Wagoner’s salary has been raised back to $2.2 million, a 33 percent increase, for 2008, which is the same it was back in 2005, the year before Wagoner’s salary cut went into effect, GM said Thursday.
The 55-year-old executive cut his base salary by 50 percent in 2006, then made a smaller, 25 percent cut in 2007 after GM posted a $10 billion loss in an attempt to help the company in its turnaround efforts, according to The Detroit News. In 2006, Wagoner’s base salary amounted to $1.3 million. Since then, he has managed to save GM $9 billion, negotiate a money-saving deal with the UAW and oversee a product revival.
Earlier, someone was asking why the foreign auto companies aren't in trouble if much of this is due to the credit market freezing up and the numbers tell the story. Their numbers are down also:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1228...googlenews_wsj
U.S. auto makers continued to post sharp sales declines in November as General Motors Corp. reported a 41% plunge and lowered its fourth-quarter production forecast, underscoring why the struggling auto maker and its Detroit rivals are seeking federal assistance to help them through the current environment.
"Every manufacturer is posting awful numbers and we are no exception," said GM North American sales chief Mark LaNeve.
The dour numbers, coming on the back of October's moribund results, also saw Ford Motor Co. post a 31% decline and Toyota Motor Corp. report a 34% decrease. Chrysler LLC, a private company controlled by private-equity group Cerberus Capital Management LP, saw its sales skid 47%.
I like this Time article, personally, about the corporate planes.
http://www.time.com/time/business/ar...3640-1,00.html
And this one, about the effect of a GM bankruptcy on the economy.
http://www.time.com/time/business/ar...862737,00.html
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