**SIGH**

Strange world. That’s what we get into when we start lionizing types like Jack Welch and such.

Just a thought

PS If the US gov does take over Chrysler an honors these payments, if I were a US citizen, I’d be mighty pissed!

These executives want the US taxpayers to throw them a lifeline, so why not VOLUNTARILY give up their bonuses? A contract can be negated by the agreement of both parties. What, the executives never once thought of giving back anything? They demand that suppliers and employees do it, so why not them?

Where the bleep is the leadership by example? Does anyone in corporate America know Jack about leadership anymore?

This to me sounds more like another case of American executives raising their own pay than retention bonuses.

The package was negotiated in good faith when Count Daimlercula dropped Chrysler’s rotting corpse on Cerberus. This is not something that was negotiated last week. I don’t like it but it’s done. Let them get paid. But going forward if they simply give out future bonus money for the hell of it with no comensurant performance goals met, then yea, we should be upset. If the gubment gives them money, then they should have a say so in exec pay AND bonuses.

What we have here is the Era of Good Stealing. It’s greed unhinged from any semblance of services effectively rendered. Or, to be more blunt, it’s legalized graft.

Of course, this is nothing new. The US has gone through a number of corruption waves over the course of its industrialization. Each corruption wave has led to increased regulations. I think one can make a strong argument that many of the current problems with the finance industry are a result of (bipartisan) deregulatory efforts over the last decade — which effectively unraveled Depression era laws that kept the finance industry pretty darn stable for three quarters of a century.

Since Chrysler is not publicly traded, I really don’t care what they pay their folks, but if/when they get a taxpayer funded bailout/loan/stay of execution, those retention bonuses need to go buh-bye.

Hate Detroit? No. Hate the culture of modern American Executive Management … you betcha.

Wanna talk about redistribution of wealth? Shhh, don’t bring it up, the executive ranks have that one nailed … take from the middle and give to the top … just don’t call it a tax!

Wrong on both counts: it is 700B bailout on books. The first installment is 250b.

“the move made sense at the time to ensure potential buyers that key Chrysler executives would remain in place after a sale.”

And that’s supposed to help a sale?

Yes, in fact this is standard in M&A deals. The buyer wants to ensure that the Executives do not jump ship for some time. Very often already the Seller makes the contracts to ensure people stay on during the sales negotiations as otherwise they might fear to be fired right after the sale. This is quite a complex issue for sellers and buyers in M&A deals.

Whether these bonuses fit now into reality once a bailout would come is obviously another matter.

The one positive thing for these guys, and surprising to me, is that out of the thousands of folks that have lost their jobs in Detroit, none of them have decided to take matters into their own hands and go postal on the Bonus crowd.