Executive Excess

August 31, 2006 11:11 PM

Executive Excess 2006: Defense and Oil Executives Cash in on Conflict(PDF). A new study from United for a Fair Economy and the Institute for Policy Studies looks at who is making a killing from the war on terror (or whatever they're calling it this week.) Looking ahead, I better review my portfolio. [Via C&L.]
posted by homunculus (23 comments total)

The new documentary Iraq for Sale covers similar ground.
posted by homunculus at 11:13 PM on August 31, 2006

Wow. I usually play "Is this a y2karl post or not?" when I skim the FPPs, and this was the first time I was wrong since I've started. You're not a sock puppet by any chance, are you?
posted by keswick at 11:38 PM on August 31, 2006

Nope. I yam what I yam and that's all that I yam.

But wait, are you really PP's sockpuppet, as some have suggested?
posted by homunculus at 12:00 AM on September 1, 2006

No tags, no tooltips, no 6pt. font? Probably no y2karl.

Nice grouping of info homunculus (at least for this insomniac), I'm going back to RTFA, thanks.

No PP? No problemo.
posted by HyperBlue at 12:30 AM on September 1, 2006

In case anyone thinks this is not relevant to them:

Ratio of CEO pay to average worker pay now 411-to-1

Since we first started tracking the CEO-worker pay gap in 1990, it has
grown from 107-to-1 to 411-to-1 in 2005. Today’s gap is nearly 10
times as large as the 1980 ratio of 42-to-1, calculated by Business Week.
If the minimum wage had risen at the same pace as CEO pay since
1990, it would be worth $22.61 today, rather than the actual $5.15.

There is a massive redistribution of wealth going on. Most of us are on the distributed-from side.

When I first saw the FPP, I wondered how many comments there would be before the first knee-jerk "agenda" screech. Not any, as it turns out.

Thanks for the good post, homunculus.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 3:45 AM on September 1, 2006

When I first saw the FPP, I wondered how many comments there would be before the first knee-jerk "agenda" screech. Not any, as it turns out.

It's early.
And don't forget the obligatory "You obviously don't understand the important work CEOs do in our economy." mantra.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:12 AM on September 1, 2006

posted by monju_bosatsu at 7:18 AM on September 1, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

I everyone put this much thought and work into their agenda posts, there would be fewer callouts.
posted by mkultra at 7:47 AM on September 1, 2006

"Some call you the haves and the have mores, I call you my base." - Dear Leader

Time for that estate death tax to be repealed, don't you think?

How can these folks criticize all those hard working CEOs, outsourcing just as fast as they can? Shouldn't they be worried about where the next meal will come from instead? Or how to pay the doctor's bill? Cut their pay I say, obviously they have way too much free time on their hands and need to find a second and third job in order to survive! Ungrateful peasants, we need more prisons for those who dare speak!
posted by nofundy at 8:32 AM on September 1, 2006

"But wait, are you really PP's sockpuppet, as some have suggested?"

They have? When? Where? That's funny.
posted by keswick at 9:11 AM on September 1, 2006

Of all the agendas for the War in Iraq, profit is the one that is least covered in the mainstream media. Otherwise reasonable people seem not to be able to wrap their mind around the idea that, for some, war is a profitable undertaking. We need a new Truman Commission to address the treason of these war profiteers.
posted by ahimsakid at 9:18 AM on September 1, 2006

Thorzdad, when I said, "Not any," I was referring to keswick's comment, the first on that wasn't homunculus's.


Nice pic, monju.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 9:31 AM on September 1, 2006

Might I suggest that perhaps keswick is PP's sockpuppet?
Just for the record and all.
posted by nofundy at 10:20 AM on September 1, 2006

Seriously doubt it, the writing styles are completely different. Besides, PP had strong feelings which he expressed stridently, keswick's just a hater.
posted by sonofsamiam at 10:25 AM on September 1, 2006

posted by keswick at 9:11 AM

Posted at 9:11. PP is obsessed with 9-11. Coincidence? I think not.
posted by homunculus at 11:29 AM on September 1, 2006

Not that this is exactly related to this discussion (it only relates to oil and political corruption more generally), but check out this breaking news: FBI raids Alaska lawmakers, including U.S. senator's son
posted by saulgoodman at 11:30 AM on September 1, 2006

Might I suggest that perhaps keswick is PP's sockpuppet?

Do you actually believe that? Just for the record and all.
posted by turbodog at 11:39 AM on September 1, 2006

“Ratio of CEO pay to average worker pay now 411-to-1”

My boss is easily 411Xs more productive than I am. In fact - bring back jus primae noctis!

Rebuttle: homunculus - you suck. People like you suck. And your post sucks too! (I rock).

seriously tho -
/Nifty picture, monju_bosatsu
I don’t know if we can divorce these concepts. War profiteering and the increase in CEO pay, the general trend of wealth redistribution, etc. One of the reasons I suspect I was off base on Iraq is because the usual feedback system was sabotaged. This kind of thing would be the payoff. Take the neo-con agenda as one peice - all the general trends we’ve seen grow in the last decade(s) - why launch attacks against public schooling, incorporate religeon and a brand of it that often has a materialist base, the focus on fostering a sense of a unifying culture, ideologically driven social orders, - etc. etc.
This all kind of reminds me of what happened to the Cathars. The same forces seemed to be at work. Now I grant some of that is legitimate ideological purpose, but the national socialists had that too. At heart that was about money.

People/large organizations have always made money off of war. What’s dangerous is the disparity and the trend to continue and expand it. I’m a pretty hearty capitalist and some folks having more doesn’t bother me much. I prefer a meritocracy but I’m also pro-republic, and we risk losing cohesiveness in society with that kind of concentration of wealth in the hands of a few.
posted by Smedleyman at 11:48 AM on September 1, 2006

keswick's just a hater.

Hate the game, not the hayta.
posted by keswick at 11:48 AM on September 1, 2006

/I’m using shorthand again - one of the reasons we’d get poor feedback from systems we normally trust is that enough top level people were in on the money making end that there was no one to really kick about it. It’s always the guys not invited to the party that rat you out to the cops. So the solution seems to have been to give everyone a taste. *speculation*
posted by Smedleyman at 11:51 AM on September 1, 2006

“Why not say that if it’s a contract with taxpayer dollars, they can’t go to excessive CEO pay”

Crazy ‘liberals’ and their anti-big government tax and don’t spend policies.

“More than 80 percent of CEO George David’s compensation is performance-based. The record shows UTC’s shareowner return under his tenure totals 1,252 percent vs. 350 percent for the Dow and 275 percent for the S&P 500”

See, devoid of context, I’d agree with this. Stockholders and the board should be able to give their CEO whatever they think he’s worth. But this calls into question several unstated concepts: If it’s performance based why give a person a raise if events favor the business environment? Certainly the war isn’t his doing or then one must ask if he then lobbied for it and they’re rewarding him for his success there. And again if it’s performance based - has he (or any CEO) taken pay cuts for poor performance? In this instance, if peace broke out do you cut his salary?
posted by Smedleyman at 2:33 PM on September 1, 2006

/I'm sorry, fellas, I just gotta have more keswick.
posted by Smedleyman at 5:54 PM on September 1, 2006

The 10 Most Brazen War Profiteers
posted by homunculus at 9:26 AM on September 6, 2006