Is It Time Wall Street Was Paid for Performance?
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Pay cuts for corporate executives and new rules for banks are designed to protect against another recession. Are the right people being punished? Is government intervention too little, too late? Also, tensions are high after a deadly day in Baghdad. On Reporter's Notebook, why has "Baby Einstein" failed to make geniuses out of infants? Why did parents think it would in the first place?
Banner image: Members of Code Pink protest as former AIG CEO Martin Sullivan (R) leaves after he testified at a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing to examine the causes and effects of the AIG bailout on Capitol Hill October 7, 2008. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images
Making News
Tensions Run High after Deadly Day in Baghdad ()
Yesterday's two simultaneous suicide bombings hit Baghdad ever worse that first thought with the death toll now at 155 and 500 wounded. Casualties included numbers of children. Gina Chon is in Baghdad for the Wall Street Journal.
Guests:
- Gina Chon: Baghdad Correspondent, Wall Street Journal
Main Topic
Profits of Doom: Breaking Wall Street's Addiction to Greed ()
President Obama says free enterprise should reward hard work, but that "it does offend our values" when executives get huge bonuses at the same time their companies are getting taxpayer bailouts to stay alive. So his so-called "pay czar" has cracked down on executive compensation at AIG, General Motors and five other companies. At the same time, the Federal Reserve has issued guidelines to discourage short-term risk-taking, prevent pay practices that endanger the long-term health of American banks, and reward long-term successes. Are the real villains being punished? Will unprecedented government interventions protect against another recession or is free enterprise the best protection after all?
Guests:
- Rick Newman: Chief Business Correspondent, US News and World Report
- Sam Pizzigati: Associate Fellow, Institute for Policy Studies
- Tom Donlan: Editorial Page Editor, Barron's National Business and Financial Weekly, @barronsonline
- J.W. Verret: Assistant Professor of Law, George Mason University
Links:
- Newman's article on the Obama Administration and corporate America
- Institute for Policy Studies' report on 'America's Bailout Barons'
- Pizzigati's article on the pay czar's pay-cut ruling
- Donlan's editorial on the problems of government regulation
- Verret on the unintended consequences of executive pay regulation
Reporter's Notebook
Disney Offers Refunds to Parents of Non-Geniuses ()
George W. Bush praised Julie Aigner-Clark for creating Baby Einstein, the supposedly "educational" DVD's for children aged zero to 2. In 2003, a study revealed that one-third of all American babies between 6 months and two years of age had at least one of the videos. Babies reportedly are transfixed, but the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no screen time at all for these infants, and now the Walt Disney Company is offering refunds to parents whose kids failed to become geniuses after all. Tamar Lewin reports on education for the New York Times.
Guests:
- Tamar Lewin: Education Reporter, New York Times
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