Dangerous Clowns
“The Obama administration has begun serious talks about how it can change compensation practices across the financial-services industry, including at companies that did not receive federal bailout money, according to people familiar with the matter.” — WSJ May 13, 2009
I’ve got a great idea! Let’s have the President of the United States, who has absolutely no experience in running a business, set the compensation policy of all companies who take bailout money, federal funding of any kind, government contracts, or who are subject to federal regulation of any kind.
But President Obama is not without some experience in setting salaries. In Congress, the members vote on their own compensation. Isn’t that how it is where you work? Let’s see. The employees, Congress, tell their bosses, us, how much of a raise they are going to give themselves and there is nothing we can do about it without firing the employees, Congress. In every company where I have worked or have run, the management determines the level of compensation. The employee has the veto power of turning it down and taking their talent elsewhere, but the employee doesn’t say, “I’m giving myself and all my co-workers a 10% raise. If you don’t like it go find new employees.”
Who Got Us Into This Mess?
Before touching a dime of compensation of any private company, start looking at all the people in government who contributed to this mess: Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and yes, Senator Barack Obama. They all need a haircut, no, a buzz cut. 
Once Congress puts on hair shirts, and a little self flagellation for good measure, and apologizes to the American people for what they did to us, then we can take them seriously about fixing the problems elsewhere. But for now, they should clean up their own house.
