Bardon Posted March 7, 2008 Share Posted March 7, 2008 "A man's got to believe in something. I believe I'll have another drink." -W.C. Fields http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8V8I8GO0.htm WASHINGTON (AP) - Top banking executives whose companies are still reeling from the mortgage crisis will come to Capitol Hill on Friday to testify about the payouts they received. The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, led by Rep Henry Waxman, D-Calf., at a 10 a.m. hearing is expected to question Angelo Mozilo, chief executive officer of mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp., former Citigroup CEO Charles Prince and Stan O'Neal, former CEO of Merrill Lynch & Co. With the three companies losing a combined $20 billion in the second half of 2007, Waxman wants to know how much the top executives are taking home -- and had his staff review internal documents and Securities and Exchange Commission filings to find out. His office issued a report blasting their payouts on Thursday. The report said Mozilo received more than $120 million in compensation and stock sales last year. O'Neal left Merrill Lynch in October with $161.5 million in stock, options and retirement benefits, after leaving the brokerage with its biggest-ever quarterly loss and Prince left with a $10 million bonus, $28 million in stock and options and $1.5 million in other perks when he left Citigroup last fall, according to the report. Spokesmen for Citigroup and Merrill Lynch declined to comment on Thursday, while a Countrywide spokesman could not be reached for comment. Republicans blasted Waxman's inquiry, with Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, the House oversight committee's top Republican, calling it 'a sanctimonious search for scapegoats.' Also scheduled to speak at the hearing are: Susan Wachter, a finance professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School; Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin; Brenda Lawrence, mayor of Southfield, Mich.; Harley W. Snyder, chairman of Countrywide's compensation committee; John Finnegan, chairman of Merrill Lynch's compensation committee; Richard Parsons, chairman of Citigroup' compensation committee and former chief executive of Time Warner Inc.; Nell Minow, co-founder of The Corporate Library and George Washington University economics professor Anthony Yezer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Injin Posted March 7, 2008 Share Posted March 7, 2008 I can only hope they have brought welding masks to shield their eyes. Christ, the man is so orange he could work at the perfume counter at boots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leonard Hatred Posted March 7, 2008 Share Posted March 7, 2008 Good old Beeb: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7283023.stm The firms have been hit by the effects of the slowdown in the US housing market and the following credit crunch. Still clinging to their "slowdown" definition Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bardon Posted March 7, 2008 Author Share Posted March 7, 2008 This is going to be fun lots of good stuff coming out. He sold his stock as the price was dropping and sold it to his loan company who borrowed the money to buy them. He said if the company didn't raise his renumeration he would quit and that would cost them more. Some other big hitters Merril Lynch and Citicorp exCEO's whopping payout 20b losses are being dragged over the coals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bardon Posted March 8, 2008 Author Share Posted March 8, 2008 (edited) US Meltdown started with a failure in the first payment of 18% of motgage in 06 now disclosed Why didn't anyone do anything the feds the treasury the mortgage companies, the banks, the board the CEO ? ask the congressman of the biggest winner Mozilo blames the victims he calls it mortgage fraud good viewing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fa8l1ttnjhw...feature=related something doesn't smell right says congressman these liar loans have happened under his watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRYBdGJcvRc...feature=related Edited March 8, 2008 by Bardon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Shedfish Posted March 8, 2008 Share Posted March 8, 2008 Mozilo is King of the Lizards, and David Icke needs to update his manifesto Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Masked Tulip Posted March 8, 2008 Share Posted March 8, 2008 What struck me in reading Mozillo's prepared testimony was not the stuff about compensation, but his account of the current housing mess: "The problem that we face today was unanticipated and is much more severe than any cycle in the past. ... It bears noting that no one predicted the severity and force of the housing downturn that followed."Wow. Angelo. What color is the sky in your world? On the planet where I live (nice blue sky today), all manner of people have been predicting a housing crash for years. Lots of them even wrote down their predictions on things called blogs. Have you ever heard of an economist in L.A. named Christopher Thornberg? Books like "Sell Now! The End of the Housing Bubble"? Blogs like Patrick.net? http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laland/200...o-no-one-p.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eightiesgirly Posted March 8, 2008 Share Posted March 8, 2008 (edited) I got a bit frustrated watching this yesterday. Seemed like a total whitewash to me. Some congressmen seemed stunned that it was happening, as one said more or less, everyone shareholders, homebuyers, hedgefunds got losses, and these dudes got bonuses, even when the company made a loss. Bless him, orange boy would rather quit than leave his lovely wifey on her lonesome. Everyone else seemed to be pretending to look for fraud and found lo and behold found angels. It seemed that they had asked the questions, heard the careful, pat answers and decided that all the crooks were innocent. I still can't get the smell of bullsh*t out of my nostrils. Edited March 8, 2008 by eightiesgirly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BandWagon Posted March 9, 2008 Share Posted March 9, 2008 This deserves it's own thread... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leonard Hatred Posted March 9, 2008 Share Posted March 9, 2008 I got a bit frustrated watching this yesterday. Seemed like a total whitewash to me. Some congressmen seemed stunned that it was happening, as one said more or less, everyone shareholders, homebuyers, hedgefunds got losses, and these dudes got bonuses, even when the company made a loss. That's the thing I love about investment banking. I could lose £10 billion, dump toxic waste in the boardroom and drown the chairman's kids, and they would still be falling over each other to give me a multi-million pound bonus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bardon Posted March 9, 2008 Author Share Posted March 9, 2008 That's the thing I love about investment banking. I could lose £10 billion, dump toxic waste in the boardroom and drown the chairman's kids, and they would still be falling over each other to give me a multi-million pound bonus. "No man is really honest; none of us is above the influence of gain." -Aristophanes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
conifer Posted March 9, 2008 Share Posted March 9, 2008 (edited) I think more people are predicting this house price crash than did so last time, around 1989. Even when that crash was under way, common wisdom was that house prices could never go down, only stand still. Since then we've has the endowment mis-selling scandal. Before that, the common wisdom was that endowments always yielded a surplus, because up until they'd always done that. Edited March 9, 2008 by conifer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eric pebble Posted March 9, 2008 Share Posted March 9, 2008 I can only hope they have brought welding masks to shield their eyes. Christ, the man is so orange he could work at the perfume counter at boots. Almost certainly an uphill gardener..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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