Like all owners of newly bought companies, Obama is moving in to take control of his empire. In a move reminiscent of the cost cutting done by the much maligned LBO barons of the 1980s, Obama has installed a Czar to regulate the pay structure of the his companies. On the surface it looks like a very good populist, class warfare type of idea. Who’s going to complain about cutting the top guys down a few hundred notches? After all, they are going after the top 100 senior earners in each of the seven major banks that received government funds. One small problem with that is exactly the fact that we are talking about only 7 banks. In America today there are over 8000 banks, so this begs the question, what’s to stop the top talent from going to one of the other 8000 or so smaller banks and turn it into a giant bank all the while reaping massive profits? Nothing, of course. Not yet, anyway. Further more until Obama confiscates passports the top talent can anywhere in on the globe get acomputer teminal and a few hundred million and start a brand new World Trade Center. How ironic would it be if the top traders form the Obama owned banks went China and worked for Chinese banks?
Another apparently unanticipated problem – and let’s be kind to Obama here, after all, how the hell would he know anything about the private sector – is that, of the top 100 people at major banks, many are not necessarily just “executives”. Far from it. Sure, Obama would have you believe that all of the 700 or so top executives are some senior paper pushers who can’t justify sitting at their own desk, but the reality is far different. A very large chunk of the top 100 earners in a financial company is usually made up of those whose pay is directly linked to performance. Not the performance of the company’s stock over a set period of time, but based on their performance in the financial battles which they win or lose on a daily basis. For example, the top traders from various departments are on that list, as are the the top syndicate managers, and top investment bankers. In a way, a financial company’s most prized assets walk out the door every night and come back the next morning, or so you hope. The reason they come back the next day is to collect a pay check. What do you think will happen if the “pay check” part of the equation is suddenly drastically changed? The equation is no longer balanced is it? And what of the ones who will stay, what will compel them to succeed if the compensation isn’t there? On the other side of the coin, what will prevent them from taking ridiculous risks? It’s not like they get paid more if they do well. I clearly remember going to work with my mother and seeing entire floors of white collar workers busy making coffee and reading newspapers in a socialist paradise. Why not. It’s not like their pay was tied to anything other than showing up, or just having someone else sign the time sheet for them.
That’s the major problem faced by the Obamunists. The top 100 highest payed people at any of these banks can very easily flip Obama, his Czars and ACORN the bird and get a job next door faster than Obama can stutter “breathalizer”. Now what? Obama could dictate that no one else is allowed to hire any of these guys, but he hasn’t yet consolidated his power to such a leve. Not yet. True to form, Obama will probably appoint another Czar. What should we call this Czar? We’ll have to hide his true function so we’ll give him an Obamesque bureaucratic sounding title. How about Czar of Employee Retention to Safeguard The People’s Funds? Yeah that sounds great. Now what should we call his subjects? Well the proper word is “serfs,” but Obama will probably just call them Americans.
P.S.
In closing here is Chavez mocking Obama, for being too far to the left!