The government has come to the aide of
two quasi-governmental companies, Fannie
Mae, and Freddie Mac, who together hold
two thirds of all the mortgage paper in the
country. The Bush administration has pretty
much guaranteed that they will not let the two
companies fail, or fall.
This comes on the heals of the government
making sure that Bear Sterns was purchased
by another behemoth. It reminds me of something
I heard a lot of moons ago. I can't remember who
said it, and my guess is that it was in a movie I
saw way back when. An older guy tells a young
thief, "If you're going to be a thief, make sure
you steal big."
I guess that's the same thing they teach at the
Harvard Business School, which is where a lot
of these CEO's come from. You would think that
these guys would avoid situations that could bring
their entire enterprise crashing down, but as we
can plainly see, their greed outstripped any other
emotion they may have had.
If we had a real free market economy these
guys and their henchman would get what they
deserve. They companies they run would crash
and burn, and they would have to take
responsibility for their actions. It wouldn't be
pretty, but it would serve as a good lesson.
I'm all for tying the pay of top corporate officials
to performance. Give them a decent salary, and
reward them if the company does well, and only
when the company does well. If the company goes
downhill, or underperforms, there are no bonuses.
And we should kill the golden parachute. If a board
wants to get rid of a CEO, fire him, just like corporate
managers do with employees. Board members
should also not be paid if the company doesn't do
well. Pay their transportation, meals, and lodging
costs, but nothing else unless the company performs.
I always found the corporate ratings system a
great exercise in hypocrisy. Managers would rate
employees, but nobody ever rates the guys making
the decisions. Except when it comes to paying out
big bonuses to themselves. At that point the superlatives
can run into several pages.
Many of the CEO's involved in this financial
debacle should be put in jail, or be forced to work
at a garbage facility for years, taking in the smell
of what they created.
From the big saddle,
Jim Whelan
The Chairman of the Board
P.S. Somebody please tell Bret Favre to shut up.
I'm tired of listening to a guy who can't make a
simple decision about whether or not he wants
to play football or not.
thejamesrwhelanagency.com
206 407 3124
I would agree with you, but these guys are no different than the politicians in D.C. The U.S. is going down and you can bet most of them will be re-elected this fall. Why hold CEO's to a higher standard?
Ken
Hello Mr.Whelan,
I really enjoy your concise, helpful and hard hitting comments. They usually give me another push toward excellence in business.
In that vein, I am sorry to point out a small mistake in your latest. The word "heals" should be "heels". "Heal" means to make or become well. A "heel" is on the bottom of a foot. It also has a few similar definitions.
I would not bother you with such a small infraction except that it is one of my pet peeves and is usually caused by over reliance on spell check. Those of us who were schooled before computers pickup quickly on the small errors while sometimes overlooking larger ones.
The second reason I brought this to your attention is because I have become accustom to your excellent posts. You have consistently produced well written and well thought out ideas; therefore, it came as a shock to my system to find any errors at all, however small.
Please keep up the good work and "Calling 'em as you see 'em"
Sincerely, TOM ARMISTEAD
A lot of the officers of these two companies are former government officials themselves (like Jamie Gorelick; the same who, during the mid-90's, wrote in the rules creating a communication wall between the CIA, FBI, and other intelligence agencies, thus almost directly leading to our failure to act on known terrorists in our midst. Result: 9/11.). It's one big happy family among them -- once a government official, always a government official. More and more, these criminal government officials are behaving like the mob families they're supposed to eliminate.
This , along with the Obama candidacy, all reminds me of the Jimmy Stewart film "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington". Except, today's events are like an evil, parallel universe. Instead of youngsters supporting Mr. Smith because he's right, we've got youngsters (albeit slightly older) who support Obama because he supports licentiousness. Instead of bringing down some rich fatcat who pulls the strings from behind the scenes, the rich fatcats are being pushed up front and handed the strings of power and told, "Please give us what we want!"
And so we all get to enjoy the smell of what's created. It stinks to high heaven!!
"This comes on the heals ..."
heels
"They companies they run..."
The
Respect the language or your provoke disrespect.
Personally, I'd like to bulldoze Washington under 60 ft of earth. Along with it, the beloved K-Street.
Time for the bobble heads of this country to turn off the ET tonight, American Idiot and the like shows and take a hard look a what's coming our way. The storm is coming, hope most of us have storm shelters.