So, I was reading Dean Baker's column in the Guardian and came to the conclusion that this guy is F&*king BRILLIANT!!

Then we have the issue of executive compensation. One of the main reasons that most workers have seen little benefit from economic growth over the last three decades has been that so much money has been redistributed upwards to the people who run companies like Fannie and Freddie.

Last year, Richard Syron, the CEO of Freddie Mac pulled down $19.8m in compensation. This is an interested number. With the new minimum wage hike, a full-year minimum wage worker would earn $13,100 a year. That means that in 1,511 years and five months, a minimum wage worker will earn as much as Syron did last year. That's good news, because before last week's increase, a minimum wage earner would have been forced to work 1,692 years and three months to equal Syron's pay.

Of course, this comparison is unfair because it doesn't consider their differences in productivity. A minimum wage worker might clean a building or run a check out counter, in other words, provide a benefit to the economy.

Syron, a man whose only job is to follow the housing market, was too incompetent to notice the largest housing bubble in the history of the world. As a result, he kept pumping in credit to hugely over-valued housing markets, allowing prices to become even more over-valued. With house prices now plummeting, tens of millions of families are seeing their life savings vanish before their eyes. Syron's productivity is considerably below that of the custodian or the checkout clerk.

Last week, government action helped to support the pay of both minimum wage workers and Bill Syron. And almost everybody in Congress thinks this is fair.

Head over to MSNBC for more of the story on Syron (or in my book Sauron...I guess I sound like a Lord of the Rings Geek, huh?)

Freddie Mac Chairman and Chief Executive Richard Syron pocketed nearly $19.8 million in compensation last year, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Friday, even though the mortgage company's stock lost half its value in 2007.

If Syron stays at the helm of Freddie Mac through the end of next year, he will receive nearly $20 million in stock awards if the board says he has met certain goals. This year, he is guaranteed to get $8.8 million in stock grants regardless of performance.

For 2007, Syron received a $1.2 million salary, a $3.45 million bonus, including $1.25 million to remain at the company, and $771,585 in other compensation. He also received stock and options valued by the company at $14.3 million at the time they were awarded.

I find it fascinating that he was paid $1.2 mill TO STAY at Freddie Mac despite the de-valuation of the stock price. If I were a waitress and my average check sale fell like the devaluation of Freddie, well, I'd be looking for another job. Wouldn't most of us?

But I keep forgetting CEO's are like caviar, they smell, only the rich want it and yet, it's really just the inner scrapings of bottom feeders. I suppose this is what Dick Dauch meant by the "Entitlement Mentality" comment. Cause it sure looks like boards keep rewarding those with his kind of mentality, you know, like their ENTITLED to it.

BTW, you aren't Dickey boy nor are you Sauron, oops, I mean Syron.

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Today is a sad day. Not only is the NAFTA queen being called the comeback kid, but DC City Council voted on Tuesday to say Fuck You to waitresses and Health Care workers in the city.

Yep, that's right, please remember to thank

Harry Thomas Jr. (Ward 5)
Mary Cheh (Ward 3)
Kwame Brown (At-Large, I guess I should expect this from a former Wal-Mart executive)
Yvette Alexander (Ward 7, WTF Yvette?)
Vincent Gray (Council Chair)
Jack Evans (Ward 2)
David Catania (At-Large-Independent former Republican)

For Voting their Fuck You to DC workers.

From DC's Metro Washington Labor Council:

With an estimated 200,000 workers in DC who do not currently get paid sick time, with high concentrations in low-wage food service, retail, and construction -- including part-time workers and workers in seasonal positions - sick leave advocates say many DC workers may now never meet the one-year full-time minimum to access paid sick and safe time.

I do taxes as a volunteer in DC. I sit across from the table and look at the financial picture of worker after worker after worker. What is the most disgusting part of yesterday's vote is that they could have included servers and still did the ridiculous 12 months full time requirement and still taken them out of the mix, but Health Care workers? That's one aimed directly at single moms. It's aimed at the visiting nurses who aren't represented by a union, the certified nursing assistants, homehealth aides, mental health aides, etc... These are the lowest paid health workers out there. And I do their taxes. They make less than $30k a year working full time when they do work full time. Most do not. Most work multiple jobs and all of them are part time.

So, thank you Carol Schwartz for pushing this measure (I can't believe I'm thanking a Republican), but to the unanimous support the final bill recieved, shame on DC Council. Shame on each and every one of you for voting the Fuck You to DC workers.

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