Gotta give the Globe & Mail's uneven opinion maker,
Jeff Simpson, his due. Today he is on to something. We can only "hope", he says, that our economic "Canadian plutocracy" (you know, the one "removed from the preoccupations of ordinary people") will see the "justified humbling of Wall Street and its shameful greed" as a reason to pause and reconsider its
modus operandi. After all, its repeated justification for "large salaries, bonuses, stock options and the like" to keep Canada's homegrown talent from leaving for the US may no longer carry any weight. Maybe we should just let them go?
Need proof? See
this story in the very same paper.
"Lawyers for Nortel Networks Corp. [NT-T] are to appear in court on Friday to ask for approval of a controversial $23-million (U.S.) bonus plan for its top executives that the company says is needed to boost falling morale at the company.....
The bonus plan for executives would reward them for achieving cost reduction goals and tightening the organization's focus, based on their annual base salaries."Executive Rewards? Hmmm? If you go to
Pink Sheets to see a real time stock quote on just how well these executives have been performing their duties you will be greeted with this banner warning.
Bonus indeed! Reward for what? Driving the shareholders stock value to the 0.78 pennies mark?
The rampant hypocrisy that seems to govern the mindset of North America's economic elite should not be allowed to stand. MSNBC's Keith Olbermann nailed it last night: "ENOUGH!"
