September 6, 2002

11:37 AM

Help Jack Welch buy a newspaperPapers filed in the divorce of former General Electric chief Jack Welch contend that GE agreed to provide the executive enormous perks for life: access to corporate aircraft, use of a Manhattan apartment, Knicks floor-level seats, satellite TV at his four homes...plus costs... from wine and food to laundry, toiletries and newspapers, certain dining bills at the restaurant Jean Georges. Good for him: but hasn't executive compensation reached a bizarre detachment from actual performance? (sorry, AFL-CIO link)?Unless of course you're a woman (Businessweek.com link, conservative-safe)
posted by matteo (4 comments total)

Er... since when has organized crime ever been fair and reasonable? This is America you're talking about buddy, not some sort of "business place" or "free market".
posted by badstone at 11:47 AM on September 6, 2002

For a not starry-eyed view of Welch's years at GE check out this book
And, for income inequality stuff, check out Paul Krugman's website
Or the Census Bureau
posted by matteo at 11:57 AM on September 6, 2002

Sounds like Jack's a deal for GE. Contrary to what the article reports as his salary in 2000 ($16.7 million), I seem to recall that he was compensated somewhere in the vicinity of $83 million. That likely included stock options, though.
On a semi-related note, an environmental factoid: Tons of PCBs the Ontario government plans to incinerate over the next 3 years - 99,000.
posted by martk at 12:36 PM on September 6, 2002

Awesome schadenfreude here. Welch's dalliances with that editor from the Harvard Business Review cost him his marriage and his reputation. GE's board of directors look like idiots or pushovers for agreeing to that compensation package, and the comapany's stock looks as weak as it did 5 years ago. That egomaniac leaves business in a storm of controversy and stupidity- just what he deserves.
posted by gen at 6:24 PM on September 6, 2002