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News Articles
| US: Banks Set for Record Pay
by STEPHEN GROCER, Wall Street Journal
January 14th, 2010
Major U.S. banks and securities firms are on pace to pay their people about $145 billion for 2009, a record sum that indicates how compensation is climbing despite fury over Wall Street's pay culture. |
| US: So You Squandered Billions --- Take Another Whack At It
by Steven Perlstein, Washington Post
September 2nd, 2009
During the heyday of the credit bubble, they were the financiers who earned huge bonuses for creating, trading and investing other people's money in those complex securities that resulted in trillions of dollars in losses and brought global financial markets to their knees. Now they're out there again hustling for investors and hoping to make another score buying and trading the same securities. |
| US: House votes to rein in ‘excessive pay’ for company execs
by Gail Russell Chaddock, Christian Science Monitor
July 31st, 2009
On Friday the U.S. House of Representativs passed a high-visibility bill to give shareholders and federal regulators a stronger hand in curbing excessive or risky executive compensation. Industry groups such as the National Association of Manufacturers opposed the bill as an overreach into private business decisions. |
| US: Big Banks Paid Billions in Bonuses Amid Wall St. Crisis
by Louise Story and Eric Dash, New York Times
July 30th, 2009
Nine of the financial firms that were recipients of federal bailout money paid about 5,000 of their traders and bankers bonuses of more than $1 million apiece for 2008, according to a report released Thursday by the New York attorney general. The report is certain to intensify the growing debate over how, and how much, Wall Street bankers should be paid. |
CorpWatch Blog
| How We Got Here: Post-Doctoral Division
by Brooke Shelby Biggs
June 16th, 2006
Feeling brainy? Than this article about the "financialization" of almost every aspect of modern life will help explain how we got to a place where obscene executive pay packages, Ken Lay, exploding consumer debt and the widening gap between rich and poor, and why it won't last. Or something. |
CorpWatch Exclusives
 | Is Halliburton Forgiven and Forgotten? Or How to Stay Out of Sight While Profiting From the War in Iraq
by Pratap Chatterjee, TomDispatch.com
June 3rd, 2009
At Halliburton's recent annual shareholders meeting in Houston, all was remarkably staid as the company celebrated its $4 billion in 2008 operating profits, a striking 22% return at a time when many companies are announcing record losses.
Just three months ago, however, Halliburton didn't hesitate to pay $382 million in fines to the U.S. Department of Justice as part of the settlement of a controversial KBR gas project in Nigeria in which the company admitted to paying a $180 million bribe to government officials. |
 | Norilsk Nickel: A Tale of Unbridled Capitalism, Russian Style
by Anton Foek, Special to CorpWatch
October 9th, 2008
The launch of Russia’s stock markets in the early 90s and privatization of state assets has profoundly impacted Russian society. As the case of mining giant Norilsk Nickel illustrates, this experiment has given rise to both immense personal wealth for a new elite, and economic uncertainty for the ordinary citizen. |
 | An Uncomfortable Spotlight in Davos
by Pratap Chatterjee, Special to CorpWatch
January 31st, 2008
The CEOs of three-quarters of the world's 100 largest companies have just completed an uncomfortable weekend at the tiny Swiss ski resort of Davos, while their companies' share prices nosedived on global stock markets, amid concern that the U.S. economy is staggering towards recession. |
 | Soaring Executive Pay Attacked by Shareholder Activists
by Sam Pizzigati, Special to CorpWatch
June 26th, 2007
Last year, the CEOs of the 500 biggest U.S. companies averaged $15.2 million in total annual compensation, according to Forbes business magazine’s annual executive pay survey. The top eight CEOs on the Forbes list each pocketed over $100 million. Stunning numbers like these have moved executive pay onto America’s political radar screen. |
 | A Proxy Battle: Shareholders vs. CEOs
by Kevin Kelleher, Special to CorpWatch
June 13th, 2006
Earnest shareholder resolutions presented at company annual general meetings on everything from human rights to executive compensation are routinely shot down in flames. But shareholder resolutions may have an effect, even in defeat. |
Commentary & Analysis
| US: 12 Things to Do Now About Corporations
by Sarah Ruth van Gelder, YES! Magazine
September 11th, 2002
Americans know that corporate excess is about more than flawed accounting. It corrupts democracy, drives a wedge between rich and poor, degrades the environment, and disrupts communities. So what might we the people do? |
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