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The Headline: The Few Jerks That Make Everybody Suffer by Zseni 01/15/2007, 8:52am PST The story: scattered non-sequiturs about rich people (bad!) and just kinda well-off people (good!) Worth reading for the absolutely psychotic way the author lists drunkenly from economic popularism to pro-rich-people. I liken it to this: we used to have a Golden Retriever who, though loveable, was dumb as a bag of rocks. In particular she loved breath mints. If you gave her one (1) Tic-Tac, everything was fine, no problems here, officer, just a dog eating a Tic Tac. But if you set a Tic-Tac on the floor for her while she was already eating one, she would go - helplessly, instictively - for the second one right away. And of course the first Tic Tac would slide out of her mouth. So then, a few seconds later, she would see a Tic Tac on the floor and go for it. And the second Tic Tac would slide out of her mouth. So she would continue juggling them. "Last week it became public that Home Depot CEO Bob Nardelli would be leaving the company. First, let me point out fairly that Nardelli shepherded The Home Depot to increased earnings. Too few other CEOs have done that in recent years. In fact, Nardelli was among the handful of the Dow 30 CEOs to deliver 20-percent-earnings-per-share growth for four years running." ... "What really nettles everyone from Main Street here to Wall Street is that while The Home Depot's price per share had languished for too long, Nardelli was reaping almost incomprehensible compensation -- $156 million in pay from 2000 to 2005, plus stock options pegged to the benchmarks he met." WHAT I LEARNED: The markets don't work, compensation should not be pegged to performance, and being really good at your job means nothing if you're not a nice guy. "An InsiderAdvantage poll conducted this past week in The Home Depot's home state of Georgia found that nearly 80 percent of respondents considered Nardelli's compensation excessive. Most of the others didn't know who he was." ... "Every time a Nardelli-type in effect pillages a publicly held company, it provides more fodder for Democrats and liberals who perpetually seek to "tax the rich." In "rich," of course, they usually include families with three kids and parents who are not multimillionaires, but who might make a combined $250,000 yearly. In fact, the new Democratic Congress may shove into higher tax brackets families earning far less than that." WHAT I LEARNED: Democrats want all your fuckin money, America. Except they're going to ask for it instead of making a a fait accompli. 80% of Georgia knows who Bob Nardelli is. Democrats in Congress are the most powerful force on earth. The insensate one-two punch at the end is pure drunken boxing. "As I often note, public opinion really matters, in business as well as politics. But Nardelli left the impression that he could have cared less what anybody thought. Oh, and by the way, here's a small request for the new Home Depot CEO. Could you leave a dollar on "my bridge" each time you cross it? I could use the cash." This guy, he is big on talking to people! And charity for columnists. And it's "The Few Jerks Who Make Everybody Suffer" - this conservative daily could use a more conservative editor.

The Headline: The Few Jerks That Make Everybody Suffer by Zseni 01/15/2007, 8:52am PST     Re: The Headline: The Few Jerks That Make Everybody Suffer by Mischief Maker 01/15/2007, 3:50pm PST