The ABC reports on a study of the executive pay in Australian companies: Derailing the ‘gravy train’

A leading academic says he has found no correlation between what executives are paid and how their companies perform.

Associate Professor John Shields, from Sydney University’s discipline of work and organisational studies, studied Australia’s 500 largest listed companies and found that pay was generally not closely connected with share price and profit performance.
…

“Our research is saying, in terms of those traditional measures of CEO impact on company performance – return on equity, total shareholder return – you need an electron microscope to find any association [with executive remuneration].”

Of course, most people have already figured it out – there is no rational reason for the huge compensation packages that most CEOs receive.

In the airlines, the management team that led the company into bankruptcy is given bonuses when it convinces all of the workers to take pay cuts.

In banking the guys who drove over the cliff, are given bonuses to stay on because they are the only ones who know what happened.

They get incentive bonuses when the company does well, and when the company tanks. The executive salaries just keep climbing, when everyone who actually does meaningful work to produce the company’s products are given pay cuts, or are being laid off.

This is insane.

This is how it’s done.

Rep. Alan Grayson [D-FL08] is a first term Congresscritter from the Orlando – Disneyworld district which is supposed to be Republican. He’s not just a Democrat, he’s a blatantly progressive Democrat and doesn’t intend to put up with any more crap from the GOP.

The Pensacola News Journal has an op-ed piece by a local attorney who occasionally appears on television as a liberal talking head: Papantonio: ABC, NBC, CBS much worse than Fox News.

His basic point is that Fox doesn’t attempt to hide what it represents, but the broadcast networks refuse to admit their underlying biases.

This goes back to a point I’ve made several times: during the majority of the history of the United States the media were openly partisan. There are a large number of newspapers in this country that include Democrat or Republican in their name, clearly identifying their partisan roots. It has only been since World War II and the conglomeration of the media that an attempt was made to appear “fair and balanced”. Much of this was driven by the “Fairness Doctrine” imposed on broadcast television.

The public would be better served if the media openly announced their bias, so people could make up their own minds as to how to judge the reporting.

Late last night saw the introduction of Samuel Thomas Pritsky, who already has a blog.

A few years earlier on this day Susie Madrak was introduced, but she had to wait for her blog.

A happy birthday to both.

The ABC has an update on the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami in the Samoan islands. More than 100 people have died and there are an unknown number of missing.

They also report on a Deadly quake off Indonesia’s Sumatra Island

A strong earthquake of magnitude 7.6 struck off the city of Padang on the coast of Indonesia’s Sumatra Island, killing at least 75 people, the country’s vice-president said.

Jusuf Kalla said homes, hotels, schools, shops and other buildings had collapsed.

A hospital in Padang in the area near the epicentre of the quake also collapsed, trapping thousands under rubble, Indonesia health ministry’s disaster centre head Rustam Pakaya said.

The US Geological Survey, which monitors global seismic activity, had earlier estimated the earthquake magnitude at 7.9 but later lowered it to 7.6.

A regional tsunami warning issued after the earthquake struck was lifted, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said.

If you look at the USGS Earthquake Map you can see the entire Pacific “Ring of Fire” traced in recent earthquake activity. The vibrations from a large earthquake can cause other weak points to snap.