All information is from Zay N. Smith of the Chicago Sun-Times.
January 10, 2008
Grab your umbrella
QT Trickle-On Economics Update:
The average CEO in this country, as of today, has been paid so far this year what the average worker earns in seven years.
November 27, 2008
Odd definition of ‘forced out’
QT Trickle-On Economics Update:
Citigroup, whose CEO was given an exit package worth $29.5 million when he was forced out because of losses, is considering plans to lay off as many as 45,000 workers to cut costs.
[Charles Prince of Citigroup received an exit package worth $68 million. This was 8 months before Citigroup cut 52,000 jobs].December 3, 2007
Hedges are green
QT Trickle-On Economics Update:
The top 20 private equity and hedge fund managers made more in 10 minutes last year than the average American worker made in the entire year—
and were taxed at 15 percent.
November 20, 2007
Bonuses in the billions, hungry kids in the millions
QT Trickle-On Economics Update:
The top five Wall Street securities firms will pay $38 billion in employee bonuses this year while the U.S. government reports that 35 million Americans, including 12 million children, are going hungry.
November 5, 2007
That buys a lot of Clash albums
QT Trickle-On Economics Update:
If income distribution were the same now as it was in 1979, the top 1 percent of Americans would have $670 billion less and the bottom 80 percent of Americans would have $670 billion more.
November 1, 2007
1040 fun
QT Trickle-On Economics Update:
Dennis Kucinich at this week’s Democratic presidential debate regarding taxes and tax cuts in this nation:
“The taxation system has tilted towards the rich and away from the middle class in the last 10 years. It’s dramatic. I don’t think it’s appreciated, and I think it should be addressed.”
Wait. Sorry. Those are the words of billionaire Warren Buffett, who recently took a survey of his office workers.
Buffett pays 17.7 percent in income tax.
The office workers pay an average of 32.9 percent.
October 17, 2007
Who’s robbing whom?
QT Trickle-On Economics Update:
Bank of America, whose CEO received more than $20 million in bonuses and awards last year, fired one of its tellers in New Jersey for accepting a $10,000 award from law enforcement for his help in catching a bank robber.
September 30, 2007
Give ’em credit for trying
QT Trickle-On Economics Update:
Consumerist.com reports that one bank now offers a credit card to those down on their economic luck that includes a $99 account setup fee, an $89 program participation fee, a $49 annual fee, a $120 annual account maintenance fee, a $30 authorized user fee and a $25 fee for each $100 credit limit increase.
The interest rate is 19.92 percent.
The initial credit limit is $53.
September 26, 2007
Red China should be blushing
QT Trickle-On Economics Update:
A Shanghai resident recently purchased a Hermes crocodile-skin bag for $213,000, or roughly 65 times what the average Shanghai worker makes in a year.
September 25, 2007
Ruling class
QT Trickle-On Economics Update:
Delphi Corp., which announced plans to lay off as many as 6,000 workers to cut costs, is asking its bankruptcy court to approve more than $37 million in bonuses for its executives.
September 4, 2007
Capitalism at its finest
QT Trickle-On Economics Update:
– The median income for full-time American workers has fallen for the third year in a row.
– The average American worker has to work 36 years to take home the same amount that the average CEO receives each year in perks alone.
Welcome back from Labor Day!
August 30, 2007
Minimum raise
QT Trickle-On Economics Update:
CEO pay has increased 45 percent over the past decade while the new minimum wage represents a seven percent decrease, adjusted for inflation.
August 27, 2007
Missing the boat
QT Trickle-On Economics Update:
California stopped a $55 million mental health program for the homeless while maintaining a $45 million tax break that allows the buyers of yachts to avoid paying sales tax.
August 13, 2007
All I got was, ‘Good luck, pal’
QT Trickle-On Economics Update:
Former Commerce Bancorp CEO Vernon Hill, forced to resign in an agreement with federal investigators as part of a continuing investigation, will receive $11 million in severance pay, it was announced, very quietly.
August 9, 2007
That’s rich
QT Trickle-On Economics Update:
The average net worth of the richest 2 percent of Americans doubled in the past 20 years, while the negative net worth of the poorest 5 percent increased by nine times.
August 7, 2007
And its stock probably went up
QT Trickle-On Economics Update:
Unifi, a textile maker that cut wages and laid off more than 10 percent of its workers to “improve profitability,” announced it will pay $2.3 million to its recently fired CEO.
July 29, 2007
Save yourself
QT Trickle-On Economics Update:
While you consider the news that the average CEO in this country is paid in nine days what it takes the average worker seven years to earn, here is a list of the Top 50 Frugality Bloggers at www.creditpanda.com/blog/2007/top-50-frugality-bloggers.
July 25, 2007
A taxing thought
QT Trickle-On Economics Update:
Blackstone Group CEO Stephen Schwarzman made nearly $700 million on the day his firm went public and paid 15 percent in taxes.
Wait. That’s not lower than your tax rate, is it?
July 3, 2007
A gap letterman would envy
QT Trickle-On Economics Update:
The income gap between the richest 10 percent of Americans and the poorest 10 percent of Americans was last this large in 1929.
July 2, 2007
Open Buffett
QT Trickle-On Economics Update:
Billionaire Warren Buffett wants you to know that he was taxed last year at about half the rate his secretary was.
And, no, he doesn’t think it is a very good idea, either.
June 27, 2007
Not so sweet
QT Corporate Patriotism in Time of War (cont’d):
Hershey Co. is moving 3,000 of its 13,000 jobs to Mexico.
June 14, 2007
Up the creek
QT Trickle-On Economics Update:
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison noted that his 454-foot yacht is "really only the size of a very large house" as U.S. home foreclosures rose 90 percent from a year earlier.
June 4, 2007
Magic number is
QT Trickle-On Economics Update:
Dell announced it will eliminate the jobs of 10 percent of its workers while giving its chief financial officer a 10 percent raise.
* * *
The knot
News Item: Hillary Clinton vows to open corporate executive pay to "public scrutiny and public challenge" while Bill Clinton quietly accepts $2 million from infoUSA as a consultant.
A good marriage is about teamwork.
May 1, 2007
Go from zero to outrage in 6 sec.
QT Trickle-On Economics Update:
CEO pay increased at twice the rate of the average worker’s pay last year, while Porsche sales increased 7 percent for a third consecutive record-setting year.
April 18, 2007
A drug haze does very well
QT Grammar R Us Seminar on the English Language (cont’d):
Mark Quinn, a Naperville reader, writes:
"A recent news headline read: ‘2 shot multiple times in drug deal gone bad.’ What would be a ‘drug deal gone well’ (or ‘good,’ to maintain the incorrect grammar)?"
Put it this way:
• The Bush administration’s Medicare prescription program, written with the help of the pharmaceutical lobby to block the government from negotiating prices:
Drug deal gone well.
• A new bill, the Medicare Fair Prescription Drug Price Act of 2007, which would allow the government to negotiate prices and may be headed for President Bush’s desk:
Drug deal gone bad.
Apr 12, 2007
Lay off it
QT Trickle-On Economics Update:
News Item: Citigroup CEO, despite the company’s sluggish performance in 2006, receives a 12.9 percent raise to bring his total compensation to nearly $25 million.
News Item: Citigroup announces it will cut 17,000 jobs to reduce costs.
April 9, 2007
Driving a hard bargain
QT Trickle-On Economics Update:
Ford Motor Co., which is closing 16 plants and cutting 40,000 jobs, gave its new CEO Alan Mulally $39.1 million in compensation for the last four months of 2006.
In the event of bankruptcy, his severance would be $27.5 million.
April 4, 2007
That’s rich
QT Trickle-On Economics Update:
The average income of the richest one percent of Americans rose 14 percent in 2005, while the average income of the bottom 90 percent of Americans dropped 0.6 percent.
Mar 29, 2007
Circuit breaker
QT Trickle-On Economics Update:
Circuit City, which increased its CEO compensation 36 percent last
year, announced it is firing 3,400 of its sales people and will hire
replacements willing to work for less.
Mar 21, 2007
‘Mutual’ Respect
QT Trickle-On Economics Update:
Washington Mutual paid its CEO $14.2 million last year, including a $4.1 million bonus, while cutting 10,000 jobs to increase profits.
Mar 19, 2007
Razr’s edge
QT Trickle-On Economics Update:
Motorola disclosed that its CEO received $14 million in compensation, corrected from the previously disclosed $11.85 million, shortly after announcing 3,500 job cuts to save money in response to falling profits.
Feb 19, 2007
Looking for Mr. Goodbar
QT Corporate Patriotism in Time of War Awards (cont’d):
The Hershey Company is moving 1,500 jobs to Mexico.
Feb 13, 2007
Picture this
QT Trickle-On Economics Update:
Eastman Kodak, which has tripled the compensation of its CEO to $24,000 a day, announced 3,000 more job cuts in an effort to cut costs.
Feb 6, 2007
Dudes, you’re getting squat
QT Trickle-On Economics Update:
Dell CEO Michael Dell, who received a $1.8 million bonus for 2006, announced to workers that there will be no 2006 bonuses for them in an effort to cut costs.
Jun 28, 2006
Life can be better at the top
QT Trickle-On Economics Update:
Nortel will cut 1,100 jobs and reduce pension benefits in an effort to reduce expenses, it was announced by CEO Mike Zafirovsky, who received $18 million in compensation and hiring bonuses for the last six weeks of 2005.
Mar 20, 2006
Ugly side of Avon
QT Corporate Patriotism in Time of War (cont’d):
Avon Products is laying off 600 workers and sending their jobs overseas.
Feb 1, 2006
Dude, you’re losing a Dell job
QT Corporate Patriotism in Time of War Awards:
Dell computers, which has sent 10,000 jobs to India, plans to send 5,000 more there in the next two years.
Dec 13, 2005
Happy holidays
QT Corporate Patriotism in Time of War Awards (cont’d):
Whirlpool Corp. announced it is laying off 730 workers in Arkansas and moving their jobs to Mexico.
Dec 6, 2005
Some offshore banking
QT Corporate Patriotism in Time of War Awards (cont’d):
JP Morgan Chase announced it will move one-third of its support staff and back office jobs overseas by the end of 2007.
May 23, 2005
We did the math
News Item: States that voted for President Bush will gain 11,852 jobs, while states that voted for John Kerry will lose 24,289 jobs, in proposed closings of military bases.
Hate-filled partisans will probably try to make something out of this coincidence.
Apr 12, 2005
Did we mention China, India?
QT Corporate Patriotism in Time of War Awards:
California-based Ingram Micro, the world’s largest computer products distributor, announced it will send another 20 percent of its jobs overseas.
Apr 6, 2005
CEO to-do list: Cut staff, go shopping
QT Trickle-On Economics Update:
News Item: Sales of luxury items in the U.S. expected to almost double in next five years.
News Item: Layoffs of American workers increase 9.2 percent from last year.
Dec 20, 2004
Get blue
News Item: American Express announces it is cutting 2,000 jobs to increase profits with six days remaining until Christmas.
Oct 7, 2004
You’re not laid off, you’re in shipping biz
QT Trickle-On Economics Update:
American workers who are laid off by corporations and watch their jobs shipped overseas are now said to be participating in a "low-cost global delivery model."
Oct 10, 2004
Less is more
QT Trickle-On Economics Update:
Bank of America, which paid CEO Kenneth D. Lewis $20 million last year, announced it will cut 4,500 more jobs in an effort to run the business more efficiently.
Sep 1, 2004
Bringing home the bacon
QT Corporate Patriotism in Time of War Awards:
Corporate CEOs who sent jobs overseas last year received an average pay increase of 46 percent, while the CEOs who kept jobs here received 9 percent.
Sep 5, 2004
Nice work
News Headline: "CEO pay keeps rising."
News Headline: "CEO pay soars at companies that send jobs overseas."
News Headline: "Citigroup CEO’s pay for 2003: $111,000 a day."
Happy Labor Day!
Aug 1, 2004
Bush has prescription for ailing economy
Susan Sheybani, an assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry Holt, regarding American workers unhappy with low-quality jobs:
"Why don’t they get new jobs if they’re unhappy — or go on Prozac?"
See how easy?
The American way
QT Corporate Patriotism in Time of War Awards:
Delta Air Lines, which sent nearly 1,000 American jobs to call centers in India last year, announced it may allow customers to talk to its reservation agents in the United States instead of those in India for an extra charge.
Jul 22, 2004
Surf’s up
News Item: Department of Labor announces Web site to help the homeless look for jobs.
So it really is time, finally, for our homeless to upgrade to broadband.
Jun 17, 2004
Bad call
QT Corporate Patriotism in Time of War Awards:
Tupperware laid off 45 workers at its Orlando, Fla., call center and moved their jobs to Cebu, Philippines.
May 27, 2004
Growing their economy
QT Corporate Patriotism in Time of War Awards:
IBM and Accenture will move 9,000 more jobs to India by the end of 2005.
May 9, 2004
Trickledowner
News Item: American corporations that have outsourced jobs to India to pay lower wages discover that wages are rising in India and are now starting to outsource the outsourcings to China.
It is hard to find a good sweatshop these days.
Apr 12, 2004
No job left behind
QT Trickle-On Economics Update:
Arizona residents whose jobs have gone overseas can call a special hotline regarding welfare and food stamps, where a helpful person in Mexico or India will answer any questions.
Apr 5, 2004
Pour it on
News Item: John Kerry campaigns against "Benedict Arnold CEOs" who export American jobs.
News Item: H.J. Heinz & Co., which is a major source of the fortune of John Kerry and his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, is found to have 57 of its 75 factories overseas.
News Item: John Kerry announces he will divest himself of any holdings in H.J. Heinz & Co., saying he owes it to the American people to "practice what I preach."
Sorry. Made the third one up.
Mar 11, 2004
Coke floats
QT Corporate Patriotism in Time of War Awards:
Coca-Cola plans to move as many as 70 percent of its information technology jobs overseas to increase profits.
Mar 9, 2004
Slimming down
News Item: Kraft Foods announces it will cut 6,000 jobs.
News Item: Kraft Foods pays out $10 million in bonuses for its executives.
The beauty of Trickle-On Economics is in its simplicity.
Feb 15, 2004
Moving on out
QT Corporate Patriotism in Time of War (cont’d):
The list of major corporations moving American jobs overseas to increase profits now includes Microsoft, Bank of America, Target, IBM, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, Time Warner, Disney, Yahoo, MasterCard, Google, Accenture and CNN.
Feb 10, 2004
Jobs leaving home
QT Corporate Patriotism in Time of War Awards:
American Express reportedly will move as many as 70 percent of its software development jobs overseas to increase profits.
Feb 3, 2004
Just call them greedy
QT Corporate Patriotism in Time of War Awards:
Countrywide Financial Corp. will open a major call center in India as part of a program to increase profits by shifting American jobs overseas.
Jan 8, 2004
United we stand…
QT Corporate Patriotism in Time of War Awards:
Earthlink, the nation’s third largest Internet service provider, will lay off 1,300 American workers as part of a program to increase profits by shifting jobs to India, the Philippines and Jamaica.
Dec 16, 2003
Big Blue making its workers just that
QT Corporate Patriotism in Time of War Awards:
IBM plans to cut the jobs of as many as 4,730 American workers as part of a program to increase profits by shifting jobs to China and India.
Dec 9, 2003
Revenue going up
QT Corporate Patriotism in Time of War Awards:
Otis Elevator Co. will end its manufacturing operations in Bloomington, Ind., as part of a program to increase profits by shifting jobs to Mexico and China.
Sep 1, 2002
Works for him
News Item: Corning Inc. loses $5.5 billion in 14 months, lays off 12,000 workers.
News Item: Corning CEO John Loose, retiring in management shakeup, is given severance of $6 million cash, stock options, proceeds from investment accounts, a new $35,000 home security system and a pension of $925,000 a year for life.
Happy Labor Day!
Nov 4, 2001
To whom much is given, more is given
News Item: United Airlines announces layoffs of 20,000 workers.
News Item: United Airlines announces $1.16 billion loss in third quarter.
News Item: Ousted United Airlines CEO James Goodwin to receive severance estimated at $3.4 million
Aug 30, 2000
Paycheck check
News Item: American CEO pay increases 600 percent since 1990, with average CEO now making 475 times as much as the average worker…
January 20, 1998
Merger mania
To review: U.S. corporate mergers and acquisitions in 1997, according to the firm of Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin, occurred at a rate of $20,700 a second and totaled 12,424 times Michael Jordan’s annual salary and endorsements, $29 billion more than the combined fortunes of the 400 wealthiest people in the world and more than the combined gross national products of 183 of the world’s nations, or to put it one more way, 16.4 times Bill Gates’ net worth.
We can only be glad President Clinton’s antitrust people are hard at work.
Hello?
Antitrust people?
Anyone out there?
June 18, 1997
Corporate overkill
News Item: Federal Express, which has 127,200 employees to ship 2.5 million packages a day to 211 countries, is suing Federal Espresso, which has one guy in an Oregon grocery store trying to sell 100 cups of coffee a day from a cart.
Greg Judish said he has a friend who is a lawyer who will help him write a reply.
Here is hoping he sends the reply via United Parcel Service.
October 29, 1996
Nike’s new competition
The Church of England has adopted a corporate logo to help it compete "in the media marketplace."
The logo, in "warm episcopal purple," is a lower-case "e" with a cross at its center.
A church spokesman praised it for having "gravitas with a contemporary feel."
All right. Let’s run it up the church spire and see if anybody tithes.
August 25, 1995
Corporate Giant Slays Little Guy
McDonald’s won a court ruling Thursday in Denmark banning a street seller there from calling his business McAllan.
That is what Allan Pederson had called his hot dog stand in the town of Silkeborg.
"The whole business has been presented in the media as a David and Goliath-style fight of the little Danish sausage salesman up against a multinational giant," a McDonald’s spokesman said.
"This is far from the truth."
The spokesman was right. McDonald’s is much larger in relation to McAllan than Goliath was to David.