Handing out Christmas Presents

Here is Dean Baker going apoplectic over the kind of goodies that the corporate elite give themselves and how "the media" seem nonchalant about while that very same media is a raging pit bull about paying workers a decent wage. In the spirit of Christmas cheer, read on...

Part-Time Government Employees Earn $160,000 a Year

from Beat the Press

It's good work if you can get it. The Washington Post reports that Fannie Mae announced its new 10-person board of directors today. The article reports the members will get $160,000 each, with the chairperson getting $250,000. Heading a committee can get you an additional $25,000.

The remarkable part of this story is that the Washington Post reporter could not find a single person who thought that paying part-time workers $160,000 a year was a bad idea. There is absolutely no one cited in this piece who raised a question about the compensation levels for the board.

Keep in mind that this is a newspaper that is absolutely apoplectic over autoworkers getting $27 an hour. If we assume that the board members on average will devote 500 hours a year to their board duties, this puts their pay rate at $320 an hour.

If this board kept the mortgage giant from doing really stupid things, like taking on risky real estate loans in the middle of a housing bubble, then perhaps they would be worth this pay. But none of the new members were especially visible among those warning of the housing bubble, and several board members are carryovers from the prior board, which apparently slept through the housing bubble and Fannie's collapse.

Given the amount of ink that the Post has devoted to the question of whether autoworkers at the Big Three are overpaid, it is incredible that this issue was never even raised in this piece.

--Dean Baker

Ah... the leadership out of Washington! No wonder the US is on such a strong path of recovery. It takes this kind of insider deal-making to ensure the health of the country. With this level of honesty at the top, is it any wonder that the US has avoided a financial meltdown, that there are no frauds reported, that people are well fed and happy and secure in their jobs, and that there are no homeless people wandering the street. Yes, I tell you, the streets are paved with gold in America! With tongue very much planted in my cheek, I now turn to the happy news of how Canada, the mouse, is flattened economically as a consequence of the elephant down south is twitching.

Hey! If you liked the above blog entry by Dean Baker, you will probably enjoy this one called "Getting Rich Helping the Poor". For me the zinger is this line:

Part of his story is that such salaries are necessary to get good people. While I'm sure that there are good people who earn high salaries, I've never been fortunate enough to meet such a person.

Here's a bit from the plea by Nicholas Kristof in the NY Times to let this charitable mover-and-shaker keep his dough because of all the "good" he is doing:

But Mr. Pallotta’s company wasn’t a charity, but rather a for-profit company that created charitable events. Critics railed at his $394,500 salary — low for a corporate chief executive, but stratospheric in the aid world — and at the millions of dollars spent on advertising and marketing and other expenses. ...

In the war on poverty, there is room for all kinds of organizations. Mr. Pallotta may be right that by frowning on aid groups that pay high salaries, advertise extensively and even turn a profit, we end up hurting the world’s neediest.

It is really over-the-top for Kristof's article to be entitled "The Sin in Doing Good Deeds". Really? Well, it must be a "forgivable" sin because it comes from the charity of "entrpeneurial giving", you know, the kind where you dig into the other guy's pocket and announce how wonderful you are for helping to spread "the wealth" while you skim the collection plate to enable you to live in a McMansion.