Once against, the Republicans and Democrats are united against the market, and against companies that supply us with products we need despite government gouging (taxes, regulations, and wars). So they denounce Exxon’s $8.4 billion profit for the first quarter, when profits are essential for more drilling and more refining (despite all the government roadblocks to both), as well as the just earnings of the owners and keeping the doors open.
Is the Exxon CEO’s $400 million retirement package too much? Perhaps. Not if it were a privately held company. But in publicly held firms, management has been empowered as versus stockholders, to some extent, by the Williams Act and all the rest of the federal impediments to “hostile” takeovers. Remove the barriers to stockholders being offered the best price by takeover entrepreneurs like Michael Milken, and we could be sure that public CEO compensation is appropriate.
12:14 pm on April 27, 2006
