Same old story

The NY Times published their annual report on executive pay last Sunday and it's still a sad tale. The huge companies - sales of at least $6.5 billion - still love their CEOs. Compensation was up 5% last year, bonus payments were up. Not by much, it's true, but was 2007 a great year for many companies?

Some fun examples:

• Oil prices were way up last year. Did Occidental Petroleum have anything to do with this? Apparently, the company board must have thought the CEO did as they bumped his pay by 21% to a measly $33,600,000.
• Washington Mutual believed that all the write-offs they took last year were not part of the performance on which the CEO's bonus should be based.
• We all know how well the home building business has been. The CEO of KB Homes reeally worked hard to merit a $6,000,000 bonus.
• But the huge financial services went many steps further. The top guys in the ten largest financial services firms took home $320,000,000 although they lost $55 billion thus far and their stockholders are down $200 billion. Hey, it's only money.
• Taxes are for you and I to pay. Angelo Mozilo of Countrywide made only $100,000,000 in 2006. Shouldn't the company pay the taxes stemming from his wife's use of the company plane?