Countrywide’s Mozilo Defends Pay:
The Definition of Chutzpah?
Here’s a preview of tomorrow’s Congressional hearing into the executive pay and compensation paid to the CEOs of three companies implicated in the mortgage crisis: Angelo Mozilo of Countrywide Financial Corporation, E. Stanley O’Neal of Merrill Lynch, and Charles Prince of Citigroup.
Rep. Henry Waxman sent out a memo today providing a summary of the issue, along with Mozillo’s response to shareholders angry about his $120 million pay package.
So who does Angelo blame for the Countrywide debacle? The media, of course, and those damn unions…
“I appreciate your input but at this stage in my life at Countrywide this process is no longer about money but more about respect and acknowledgement of my accomplishments. … Boards have been placed under enormous pressure by the left wing anti business press and the envious leaders of unions and other so called “CEO Comp Watchers” and therefore Boards are being forced to protect themselves irrespective of the potential negative long term impact on public companies. I strongly believe that a decade from now there will be a recognition that entrepreneurship has been driven out of the public sector resulting in underperforming companies and a willingness on the part of Boards to pay for performance.”
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7 Responses to “Countrywide’s Mozilo Defends Pay:
The Definition of Chutzpah?”
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March 6th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
It stands to reason that a person who needs that kind of money isn’t competent to handle ANYBODY’S finances. Get a CEO who can live on $250K a year — that’s somebody who can manage money.
March 6th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
These CEOs should be in jail for fraud.
This one, above quoted, most especially.
He has no special ability, as the outcome of his “ideas” has illustrated.
It’s time to start taking the wealth of corporations that loot us, back, to pay the debts that they have foised upon us.
Take them personally, and corporately, for all profits of criminality imposed upon this nation.
March 6th, 2008 at 11:12 pm
People who compensate themselves are rarely frugal. They will tell you that they “earned” every penny of that money. They’ll point to whatever they believe separates them from us, and say they are unique. They start to believe they aren’t subject to the laws of the land. They sometimes get caught (Conrad Black), and they keep their chins up even when they are treated to Uncle Sam’s hospitality suite at the Crowbar Hotel. They are self-deluded and possibly sociopathic. Unfortunately, these qualities are highly-prized and richly rewarded in the capitalist system. What’s needed is a cap for compensation, like in sports. I think a million a year is good money. But these guys spend a million on fuel for their yachts. I guess they’re in a different snack bracket.
March 7th, 2008 at 11:39 am
Yes, let’s cap salaries (companies wanting the top talent won’t be smart enough to find under-the-table means to attract the best talent), let’s freeze gas prices (shortages have always resulted from price freezes but this time will be different!), let’s restrict subprime loans (liberals promise not to switch tactics and say “we’re stopping minorities and the poor from getting loans!”), and let’s have free health care while we’re at it (the money comes from the Magic Muny Tree and we’re fine with the awful waiting times of socialized medicine.)
Wow, feels good to project my failures on others…
March 8th, 2008 at 12:42 am
The best laid plans of these financial titans got their companies to where they are today. Citi is selling itself off, piece by piece, CWF is on life support until BofA takes them over, and the whole world is wondering if this is the apocalypse. Playing the blame game isn’t worth the effort at this stage of the game. What’s needed is HIGHER paid executives to pull this baby out of the fire, guys like Vikram Pandit, and if he wants $100 quadrillion dollars to do the job, fire up the printing presses! Seriously, nobody is worth $400 million even if they have a wonderful tan and witty quips to offer. But some fools are willing to pony up because they believe they will only get what they pay for. They are scared of not spending the money!
March 20th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Mozillo made a lot of money, but he owned a lot of stock. At least he earned the money without doing anything illegal. There’s a lot to be said for not being a member of the mafia.
April 3rd, 2008 at 9:17 am
[...] When it comes to assigning blame for his firm’s collapse, Alan Schwartz, the president and CEO of Bear Stearns, borrows a page from Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo: Blame the media. [...]