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| US: On Wall Street, Bonuses, Not Profits, Were Real
by LOUISE STORY, The New York Times
December 17th, 2008
As regulators and shareholders sift through the rubble of the financial crisis, questions are being asked about what role lavish bonuses played in the debacle. Scrutiny over pay is intensifying as banks like Merrill prepare to dole out bonuses even after they have had to be propped up with billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money. |
| US: In Factory Sit-In, an Anger Spread Wide
by MONICA DAVEY, New York Times
December 7th, 2008
In a glimpse at how the nation’s loss of more than 600,000 manufacturing jobs this year is boiling over, workers laid off from Republic Windows and Doors, said they would not leave, after company officials announced that the factory was closing. The workers were owed vacation and severance pay and were not given the 60 days of notice generally required by federal law in lay-offs. |
| US: U.S. May Take Ownership Stake in Banks
by Edmund L. Andrews and Mark Landler, New York Times
October 8th, 2008
In fresh efforts to stem persisting turmoil in the credit markets, the US Treasury Department is considering partial nationalization of numerous U.S. banks. Insurance giant A.I.G. will also receive a further injection of $37.8 billion. |
| US: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Takeovers Cost U.S. Banks Billions
by John Hechinger, Wall Street Journal
September 23rd, 2008
About a quarter of the nation's banks lost a combined $10 to $15 billion in the wake of the federal government's takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The losses are galling to small bankers because they took pains to avoid the exotic loans and loose underwriting standards that have hobbled Wall Street titans and some huge banks. |
| US: Regulator Plans to Bar Big Severance
by JAMES R. HAGERTY, Wall Street Journal
September 15th, 2008
The regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac said Sunday that it won't allow the companies to make "golden parachute" severance payments to the mortgage companies' ousted chief executive officers. |
| US: UnitedHealth Ex-CEO Settles Pay Case
by VANESSA FUHRMANS , Wall Street Journal
September 11th, 2008
Former UnitedHealth Group Inc. Chief Executive William McGuire agreed to pay $30 million and forfeit 3.7 million stock options to settle shareholder claims related to options backdating, adding to what was already one of the largest executive-pay givebacks in history. |
| US: Companies Tap Pension Plans
To Fund Executive Benefits
by ELLEN E. SCHULTZ and THEO FRANCIS, The Wall Street Journal
August 4th, 2008
In recent years, companies from Intel Corp. to CenturyTel Inc. collectively have moved hundreds of millions of dollars of obligations for executive benefits into rank-and-file pension plans. This lets companies capture tax breaks intended for pensions of regular workers and use them to pay for executives' supplemental benefits and compensation. |
| US: Fannie Mae Ex-Officials Settle
by JAMES R. HAGERTY, Wall Street Journal
April 19th, 2008
The settlement, announced Friday, brings the government far less than it had originally sought over alleged violations of accounting rules. Fannie's regulator, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, in 2006 sought to require the three former executives to pay back more than $115 million of bonuses and pay fines that it said at the time could total more than $100 million. |
| US: Chiefs’ Pay Under Fire at Capitol
by JENNY ANDERSON, The New York Times
March 8th, 2008
In pointed exchanges with Congressional lawmakers Friday, three prominent financial executives defended the multimillion-dollar pay packages they received even as their companies were brought to their knees by the spreading credit crisis. |
| UK: From $1 firm, Lord Ashcroft nets £132m
by Simon Bowers, Guardian (UK)
October 9th, 2007
The UK's Lord Ashcroft, the Conservative party deputy chairman and major donor, has agreed to sell his loss-making US janitorial business in a deal that will bring him a £132m windfall. |
| US: SEC Asks Firms to Detail Top Executives' Pay
by Kara Scannell and Joann S. Lubli, The Wall Street Journal
August 31st, 2007
Stepping up its campaign to shed light on the mysteries of executive pay, the Securities and Exchange Commission has sent letters to nearly 300 companies across America critiquing disclosures in this year's proxy statements and demanding more information. |
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