all

General Motors CEO Ed Whitacre Lands $9 Million in Pay - Where's the Outrage?


Saturday, February 20th, 2010

It's odd that more outrage isn't focused on the automakers, who took billions in dollars from taxpayers to prop up their above-market wages, and continue on to this day without making needed reforms.

That's also reflected in the pay package offered CEO Ed Whitacre, who received as much as Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) CEO Lloyd Blankfein with barely a whimper from the mainstream press.

Not only that, but former CEO Fritz Henderson has been hired as a consultant at a hefty $59,090 a month. I wonder who's paying the bill for that?

Whitacre's pay package includes a base salary of $1.7 million for 2010, plus stock, which will bring it to the $9 million mentioned. The stock will be exercised staring in 2012. He will receive $5.3 million in 2010 with another $2 million being negotiated over as to the timing.

General Motors received an enormous $52 billion in taxpayer funds to prop up their mess, and allegedly will pay it back whenever they are able to, primarily through offering stock when it returns to being a public company.

It's outrageous that this poorly run company is allowed to keep going when Americans are suffering so much. Where is the deserved outrage over their handling of their business affairs and being allowed to continue on doing business as usual, with huge paydays for their top executives?

A spokeswoman for General Motors justified the higher pay for Whitacre in contrast to Henderson, who had received about $4 million less when he was leading the company, by saying he had had prior experience as a CEO.

To show how dirty this is, Whitacre's compensation package goes beyond what has been imposed by the government for those who received and owe taxpayers money, but Obama pay czar Kenneth Feinberg gave him an exemption, showing the favoritism and outright arrogance and political payback Obama is giving the auto industry, even though the banking industry has been castigated for doing the very same things.

The American government now owns 60 percent of the failed company.



Article by Gary B

The views expressed are the subjective opinion of the article's author and not of FinancialAdvisory.com



Tags: ed whitacre , fritz henderson , general motors , kenneth feinberg , lloyd blankfein