<p>^^</p>
<p>I think I’ve said enough, but I wasn’t arguing not be in the truck market; I was arguing that to rely on it for profitability and rely on the most gas-guzzling types of vehicles for sustaining profitability was short-term thinking. That’s all.</p>
<p>Yap, the CEO/executives’ short term thinking, and they are in big trouble now. The workers will bear the full brunt of the pain though whereas the executives have their golden parachutes :(</p>
<p>CEO compensation has been out of control for years. “Soak the Rich” tax proposals only have the affect of driving the compensation away from cash to stock options. Even liberal corporations like Ben & Jerry’s are not immune. They once had a policy of not paying management more than 10 times the lowest worker’s salary…naturally that’s been abandoned.<br>
And when the executive compensation still isn’t huge enough they fraudulently back-date the stock options to cheat their stock holders out of even more. Not to mention free housing, vacations, clothing, even tuition payments for their kids.
The irony of this posting on CC is that many CC’ers aspire to having their students go to Ivy schools simply so they can network and become part of the corporate buddy system where they can collect outrageously fat pay for themselves and their friends instead of earning an honest day’s living like everyone else.
Success is not about how hard or how smart you work… it’s who you play golf with.</p>
<p>munchkin it is not just the workers who will suffer. It is the federal, state and local governments, who will bear the brunt of these losses. Car dealerships are a huge source of tax revenue for many counties. If they continue to fail it will be a very big issue in many communities.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Well, McCain certainly has a full track record of calling out those in government who have put self-interest before what is best for our country. He has called out lots of people who have tried to slip in pork barrel projects into legislation, and he has pursued some bad government contracts & those who were behind them - even resulting in jail terms for at least two people. (here’s his statement about that 2004 case: [McCain</a> Statement on US Air Force Accountability Regarding the Boeing 767 Tanker Lease Deal](<a href=“http://www.defense-aerospace.com/cgi-bin/client/modele.pl?prod=49262&session=dae.24957217.1173686864.RKOECn8AAAEAAA1jRv0AAAAF&modele=verbatim]McCain”>http://www.defense-aerospace.com/cgi-bin/client/modele.pl?prod=49262&session=dae.24957217.1173686864.RKOECn8AAAEAAA1jRv0AAAAF&modele=verbatim) )</p>
<p>And here’s what he has to say about the subject now:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>And here’s what McCain’s Economic Advisor, Carly Fiorina said on PBS in May:
</p>
<p>So Kluge, that’s why I think McCain would not be a “diet of more of the same”.</p>
<p>Carly Fiorino! She’s the poster child for corporate mismanagement. Ask her how she’s enjoying her $14m severance from HP - some say it was $21m but who’s counting? And she gets this for doing such a good job, she got fired.</p>
<p>From CNNMoney:</p>
<p>(Just so you have the facts straight).</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>StitchInTime, I have contributed plenty to the world … just not in the way that is traditionally rewarded & publicly lauded. There is more to life than leading a corporation, both for the individual and for society at large.</p>
<p>bz - she was clearly ousted for overseeing the plummet of HP and orchestrating what goes down as one of the worst mergers in history. Not being fired for cause means she didn’t get drunk and dance on a boardroom table. She was at the forefront of promoting outsourcing and was a wiz at hiding profits offshore. The HP board was pleased with her cutting their tax burden by more than half by doing so. She preferred to call it “right shoring” however. Based on the posts of yours that I have read, I’d be shocked if you supported her way of doing business.</p>
<p>Ah well, regardless of your/my opinion about Fiorina, it’s McCain’s plans that I’m really interested in.</p>
<p>I still thnk he’d be tough on corruption - either by CEO’s or in government.</p>
<p>It is interesting that he’d have Fiorina as a surrogate if her reputation is so bad - of course she was the only female CEO of of a Fortune 500 company & considered to be the most powerful woman in business. (Poor performance doesn’t necessarily equal corruption anyway).</p>
<p>I know someone who is currently doing laundry at a local nursing home, making about $9 per hour. The nursing home has difficulty supplying a clean bib to every resident at every meal, despite doing laundry very efficiently for two shifts per day. More bibs are needed, but the housekeeping manager cannot buy them until next month at the earliest because he has already used his budget on other necessities. Nor can he authorize overtime to catch up, since no overtime is allowed for anyone. (Remember that these people are making about $9 per hour, so the overtime rate would be $13.50 for a few hours.) The 46-yr-old CEO of the publicly-traded parent company–which LOST money last year–is making $11 million dollars per year. </p>
<p>Clearly, this corporation is not, as capitalists would suggest is the highest calling, being run for the benefit of the stockholders. (Let’s not even suggest the possibility that it might be run to a) provide the services for which people pay them, b) treat the employees decently, and c) return a reasonable profit.) This entire corporation apparently exists solely to enrich one man. (The next highest paid people are “merely” paid around $500K.)</p>
<p>Obviously, the board of directors must approve this compensation. Clearly, they accept their annual bribe ($40K? $120K? Who knows.) from the CFO in exchange for doing so. </p>
<p>I believe that this is the norm, not the exception. Major positions in this corporation are held by fund managers, such as Vanguard. They would not have achieved their level of success by consistently investing in corporations that were run <em>less</em> well than the norm. I suggested to the person I know who is doing laundry, and who has an MBA from a top 20 business school, plus a CFA designation, plus various investment certifications, plus work experience at major firms, that the easiest way for this particular corporation to turn a profit would be to fire the CEO and hire HIM at, say, $250K per year. He has the skills to do at least as good a job, and they could stop ripping off the corporation to the tune of $10.75 million per year.</p>
<p><a href=“%5Burl=http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1060629082-post48.html]#48[/url]”>quote</a> …There is more to life than leading a corporation, both for the individual and for society at large.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>The stated truism is an attempt to deflect the [direct</a> question](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1060625052-post38.html]direct”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1060625052-post38.html):</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>StitchinTime, I’m not really interested in getting involved in your “gotcha” game, but isn’t the answer to your question: “because Mr. Dauch is serving his own self interest in a way that harms other people?”</p>
<p>bz - she wasn’t corrupt but her business tactics embodied those that you are now eschewing. She has emerged as McCain’s surrogate on economics and business policy and he is letting her do his talking.</p>
<p><a href=“%5Burl=http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1060629336-post53.html]#53[/url]”>quote</a> …but isn’t the answer to your question: “because Mr. Dauch is serving his own self interest in a way that harms other people?”
[/quote]
</p>
<p>That’s a simplistic, single-dimension analysis of Mr. Dauch’s efforts on behalf of his company.</p>
<p>Mr. Dauch negotiated a contract that [“will</a> generate over $300 million in total annual structural cost reductions”](<a href=“http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/AXL/347967294x0x62645/2B52E7AB-4540-49D1-8C58-BCC43F623DA7/INVESTOR_PRESENTATION2.pdf]"will”>http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/AXL/347967294x0x62645/2B52E7AB-4540-49D1-8C58-BCC43F623DA7/INVESTOR_PRESENTATION2.pdf) and includes [“GM</a> financial assistance of $215 million”](<a href=“http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/AXL/347967294x0x62645/2B52E7AB-4540-49D1-8C58-BCC43F623DA7/INVESTOR_PRESENTATION2.pdf]"GM”>http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/AXL/347967294x0x62645/2B52E7AB-4540-49D1-8C58-BCC43F623DA7/INVESTOR_PRESENTATION2.pdf). The UAW workers are being compensated at a rate that the market will bear for their skills as opposed to not having a job at all. If the employees want to be compensated more, they have every opportunity to acquire skills that the market will compensate at a higher rate and/or hire better negotiators on their behalf.</p>
<p>If Mr. Dauch is legally harming anyone, he should be indicted and held to account for his crimes. Otherwise, an individual’s self-interest shouldn’t be questioned lest one is prepared to have their self-interest questioned.</p>
<p>StitchinTime, you are either a top exec or plan to be one. You are certainly entitled to your opinion. I won’t debate you, because neither of us is going to change her/his mind. I won’t answer your <em>direct question</em> because I really don’t feel like it. See, even I can be insensitive to others. Maybe I would make a good CEO, after all.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>How so? I’m speaking in support of McCain’s assertion that CEOs should be held accountable. Was Fiorina not “held accountable”? She was fired after all.</p>
<p>Perhaps you have a prob w/ her involvement in McCain’s campaign. While it does cause me to raise an eyebrow, it’s not that big of an issue. She still has knowledge, experience & insight, even if she has made mistakes in the past at HP. (Assuming she is not corrupt, as I think we’ve agreed).</p>
<p>“bz - she wasn’t corrupt but her business tactics embodied those that you are now eschewing. She has emerged as McCain’s surrogate on economics and business policy and he is letting her do his talking.”</p>
<p>There’s a bit of a love-hate relationship with Carly. She set the stage for the company’s current success and her business style is still in place. The employees that I talk to love the stock performance but are on edge all the time and there are some of the dumber sides to downsizing and cost savings.</p>
<p>It’s interesting looking back at how they integrated DEC. It looked poorly done for a long time but the products have been straightened out and the customer base maintained - especially the Alpha customers who are either still on Alpha or who are migrating over to Itanium.</p>
<p>Carly also suffered from not having an engineering background at two companies that were engineering driven. Engineers frequently prefer an engineer or at least someone technically competent at the helm. I think that McCain could have picked someone with less baggage than Carly but she’s the right pick if he wanted a hard and tough woman in the position.</p>
<p>BCEagle : that was a fair assessment of Carly. </p>
<p>I know some HP peeps who were not impressed with her but I heard the current downsizing and cost cutting is getting ridiculous and depressing morale, so she may not be that bad after all as a leader.</p>
<p>I worked at DEC for many, many years and it was your typical East Coast gentleman company. The founder cared about his employees and the amounts of money the company spent on employees and their families was very, very nice. You could max out at five weeks vacation if you stayed their long enough. The belief was that if we couldn’t find a place for you to be successful in the company, then the company failed. Of course this engendered a fierce loyalty to the company. But the hardware focus and high margins blinded the company to technological and business changes that would sweep the legs from under the company. “Chainsaw” Bob Palmer was brought in to slash and burn.</p>
<p>She essentially combined three companies with different cultures, old-boy networks and the contempt of engineers that didn’t think highly of her. Some of the things that she did (ostentatious spending of company money) didn’t help but in the long run what she started turned out to work. I do not like the current situation though. I think that their cost-cutting has affected product quality in their consumer lines - to the point where I won’t buy their products anymore.</p>
<p>HP took on Dell in a business arena that Dell absolutely owned. And won. Taking on the best of any business area and winning while downsizing and outsourcing heavily is very, very hard. Look at all of the companies that have tried to take on Apple’s iPod.</p>
<p>I was very critical of Carly in the 1990s, as a more than casual observer but I’ve revised my opinion more recently, especially having learned quite a bit more about some of the other divisions and their progress.</p>
<p>The current management crew showed their ethics in the pretexting scandal. Asking the chief ethics officer to cover something up should have raised a personal red flag. At any rate, Wall St likes the current management.</p>