New York University
Professor of Economics at New York University and an expert on income distribution
PROFILE
Edward Wolff
Guest
FROM Edward Wolff
Which Way, L.A.?
Executive Pay and Corporate Failure One of the reasons for income inequality in the US is the skyrocketing pay of corporate executives, even when their companies are not doing well. At the same time, the wages of workers are on the decline. Shareholders in Amgen, one of America's largest biotech firms, lost three percent of their investments in 2010, seven percent overall in five years. Located in Thousand Oaks, the company was closing plants and trimming the work force from 20,000 to 17,400. Chief Executive Kevin Sharer had been making $15 million a year, with perks that included two corporate jets. We hear what goes on in corporate boardrooms and what it means for the economy.
To the Point
What Do Climbing Executive Salaries Mean for the Rest of Us? In recent years, compensation for corporate executives has quadrupled in constant dollars while pay for wage-earners has been steadily going down. That's true even for CEO's whose companies are not delivering for their shareholders. Shareholders in one of America's largest biotech firms lost three percent of their investments in 2010, seven percent overall in five years. Amgen was closing plants and trimming the work force from 20,000 to 17,400. Chief Executive Kevin Sharer had been making $15 million a year, with perks that included two corporate jets. We hear that corporate boards of directors determine executive pay based not on performance but on what other companies pay their executives. What did that have to do with the collapse of the economy? How dangerous are America's growing gaps in wealth and income?
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To the Point
The longest US war: Will Trump send more troops to Afghanistan? The Trump White House is divided over the Pentagon's request for more troops in Afghanistan—where the US has been fighting for the past 16 years. Is there a formula -- either for "victory" or a political settlement? Is there an end in sight for America's longest war?
To the Point
Is the threat from Russia missing from the Russia meddling probe? There's much being made about the Trump administration's possible ties with Russia. But the bottom line is Russia's effort to influence American democracy. Do the President and his aides care enough to take action before voters go back to the polls?
To the Point
Human Rights in the era of Donald Trump President Trump’s UN Ambassador, Nikki Haley, said today the US might pull out of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council. Serious violators of human rights are members of the Council itself–and a US resignation could make things worse. Later on today’s show, now that he’s into his second term, comedian turned US Senator Al Franken is telling jokes again.
To the Point
What happens when America retreats from the world? Is President Trump taking his "America First" agenda to extremes, withdrawing the country from the international stage on trade and climate change, distancing America from its traditional allies across the Atlantic and even threatening to physically isolate the country through the building of a wall along its southern border? León Krauze guest hosts.