CEO Fuld. Next stop? My guess, Gstaad, Switzerland.
Bloomberg.com: Worldwide — This venerable institution is now toast thanks to current greedy management practices. Does anyone ever go to jail for this sort of mess? CEO Richard Fuld made 0ver $70 million last year for this fine job he has done. This is a joke, right?
Bank of America Corp. abandoned talks to buy Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., according to a person with knowledge of the matter, less than three hours after Barclays Plc said it wouldn’t buy the faltering investment bank.
Bank of America, the biggest U.S. consumer bank, and Barclays, the U.K.’s third-largest lender, had been among the leading candidates to acquire all or parts of New York-based Lehman.
The two potential bidders pulled out amid a third day of emergency negotiations led by the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve, Leigh Bruce, a spokesman for London-based Barclays, said in a phone interview today.
The U.S. government is racing to find a solution for Lehman before markets open tomorrow, two people familiar with the situation said. Barclays walked away because it couldn’t get guarantees from the government or agree on a private-sector deal to mitigate what it called Lehman’s “open-ended” trading obligations.
Led by Chief Executive Officer Richard Fuld, Lehman may be forced to liquidate unless buyers step up for all or part of the 158-year-old company
Forbes profiles.
Compensation and “Best Bosses” List.
America’s Richest Men List
$350 Million for the last 5 years… 1/3 of a Billion dollars in SALARY for 5 years… you can’t make this shit up.
If you are a McCain loyalist, you support lowering his tax rate, because having people like him make this kind of money is good for the economy… ignore the bailouts… this stuff is good for the economy. Lower his tax rates, but leave the tax rate for those making $45,000 the same.
But having this putz be part of the 5% of Americsns that would see their taxes rise under Obama’s plan is unfair wealth redistribution.
What kind of crooked twisted rigged game is being played that allows failed leadership to be rewarded in this way? Part of ANY bailout plan MUST include retroactively (since beginning of employment) limiting income to $1 million / year maximum, with everything above that now due back to the government to be part of the bailout… that alone would provide 1/2 of a Billion dollars in funds from this putz by himself.
#19 LOL Digby, that’s one version of how it happened. Another version is that he hired the lobbying firm that had done so well for the village of Wasilla. They went right to work, and the Lehman board was putty in their hands.
The only demand they weren’t able to satisfy was the 9 Olympic gold medals he wanted as part of his compensation package. Fuld just hates it when someone else has more of something than he does. Oh well, maybe next time…
#17 – SpEd
>>Damn, does this guy look like the Grinch that Stole
>>Xmas or what?
Actually, Becky Quick looks more like the Grinch that Stole Christmas
http://tinyurl.com/6evnj4
Watch her talk on CNBC sometime. Those pointy little lips? Either she’s the Grinch in disguise, or his daughter.
Regardless of whether Lehman is bailed out or not, it’s not done yet. WAMU, Meryl Lynch, AIG are all suffering or on the ropes.
The global scope of this astounding. England has tanked over this, Far East markets are hit, etc. Huge adjustments are still needed and short sellers are needed to add liquidity. It’ll be ugly.
I don’t really have a problem with the former CEO getting his golden parachute as long as that was in his contract when he was hired. Its the board, and the investors fault for giving him such a huge amount with no ties to job performance. It would be like you or I, getting a job where we get our entire year of pay up front, but with no real requirement to work that full year or even show up for work. We would call the company and the boss that hired us an idiot, and more than a few would take the money and run.
The part where I actually care is when the government comes in and bails the companies out after giving their CEO such a deal, and then said CEO does a crappy job and drives the company into the ground.
Let the companies that do this die. After a few of the big ones go the way of the Doe Doe bird maybe the ones that are left will get the message and actually start to look out for their own companies instead of their fellow board members like their share holders insist.
>>Let the companies that do this die.
I’m with ya on that one, Bob. It may be ugly for a while, but, like cancer surgery to remove a malignant tumor, it will be better for the patient (i.e. the US economy) in the long run.
Too many people have made way too much money for waaaaaaay to long by doing nothing but shuffling papers. WTF do CDOs, derivatives, ETFs, and arbitrage have to do with the Average Joe/ Josephine who goes to work, tries to buy a home, provide for the family, and save some money for retirement?
With the trillions and trillions of dollars wasted on this smoke-and-mirrors Wall Street nonsense, everyone in America (and their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren) could have lived happy, secure lives.
#14 The absurdity they call accounting in the federal government started long, long before Bush entered the White House. I knew in high school Social Security would implode the budget before I retire. All the little fixes from the Carter years to now have yet to solve the real problem and the blame is so thick neither party can raise itself out of the quagmire.
#26 – Cap
No, the solution to the Social Security “crisis” is to just have dickwads like Dumbya quit stealing money from the SS coffers to finance his misbegotten trophy war, his tax cuts for the rich, and like that.
See how easy?
Mission Accomplished!!
#25 “Too many people have made way too much money for waaaaaaay to long by doing nothing but shuffling papers.”
Making money by merely shuffling money is the main crime of capitalism.
#29 – Patrick
>>Making money by merely shuffling money is the
>>main crime of capitalism.
I’m going to have to agree with you there, Paddy-O. We’ve become a nation (or a world) of money-changers, and they should all be kicked out on their asses from the world temple for this abomination.
#29 “I’m going to have to agree with you there, Paddy-O. We’ve become a nation (or a world) of money-changers”
Marx knew something was VERY wrong. He just went a bit wide and netted all private industry. He needed to just nail the bankers, market manipulators, and other financial parasites that didn’t actually produce anything of value…
What happened to the good old days when the president or CEO of a failed or bankrupt company would commit ritual suicide rather then face dishonour? Or at least jump out the window of their office on the 50th floor?
Just in: BofA to buy Merrill Lynch for $44 billion.
If only the government would just step out of the way and allow the free market to…they did what? they did? Oh, never mind.
I keep thinking of Russell Crowe in Gladiator, “Are you not entertained?” Why isn’t this leading every news show every night?
Keep watching The Two Coreys, everybody. As the late great Bill Hicks used to say, “Go Back to Bed, America-Your Government Is In Control.”
Just don’t be surprised when you show up for work tomorrow morning and there’s a padlock on the door.
It’s officially posted on the Lehman Brothers Website, and the Australian Stock Exchange (the only one open right now) has halted trading in it’s stock.
Poof! There goes 100′s of billions of $$$ in equity… you think it was getting tough to take out a home loan, wait until tomorrow, when Merrill Lynch goes away, followed shortly by AIG and WAMU.
Quite a few guys would come on CNBC in Feb 08 and say, I think this banking problem will all be over by summer. Those guys have been crushed.
WM and AIG are next.
I’m not sure where we will see a bottom, but it looks like 2009 at best.
CNN this morning stated the golden parachutes for Freddie and Fannie will not be honored by the U.S. government.
#26 I wholeheartedly agree with you
#31 Marx was a nutjob. Not to mention the nutjobs that used his work to build communism.
#39 “Marx was a nutjob. Not to mention the nutjobs that used his work to build communism.”
Yes, but that doesn’t invalidate the fact that taking capital out of a system without producing anything is system breaking.
Speaking of jail…good to see my old boss, Mr. Taubman, still on the Forbes list. They threw him in jail unjustly. Watch – this Lehman guy won’t even see the inside of a cell…and he deserves to…
I remember meeting Steve on the Forbes yacht…he was friendly and believed in the flat tax…I think that would solve a lot of these problems in the future.