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Is This Greed at Its Worst?

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Re: Is This Greed at Its Worst

Every year I see this debate carry on.......

Don't get me wrong, it's a ton of money and I think that no one person alive deserves that much money..... but

The majority of it is tied in stock, which is benchmarked against the performance on the company, which no investor in the could ever argue with - if you invest in MBL, you accept that this is always going to be the case. They pay well because that is the industry. I wonder if Babcock and Brown will receive the same attention, or Allco. The answer is no, only MBL will because we are all obsessed with getting snooty at Australia's company of greed! The way options are valued, intrinsically he was probably paid even more than reported!

Plus, would you really want to be Allan Moss - he doesn't look like the most social man you have ever met! He would sleep eat and breath that Company - would you be willing to give up years of your life to command a ship like that.... No thanks very much!

Cheers
 
Re: Is This Greed at Its Worst

Didnt know where to put this but i guess its about Gekko so the greed thread would do:

Gekko's stocks may not reach as high second time around
A sequel to Wall Street and the comeback of the tanned, oiled and red-braced Gordon Gekko fills Chris Ayres with dread
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May 16, 2007

I REMEMBER renting a copy of Wall Street on VHS when I was in high school. My life was never the same again.
There was Gordon Gekko, pacing the beach on Long Island at dawn, talking into his suitcase-sized mobile phone, dispatching a callgirl to the apartment of the naive Bud Fox as a reward for an illegal tip-off, eating at the best restaurants in Manhattan and describing real-estate deals as "better than sex".

I watched Wall Street at least 20 times before deciding that I, too, wanted to be an insider trader; or at least move into an Upper East Side co-op apartment with Daryl Hannah and fill it with gadgets while Talking Heads played on the CD player.

I went as far as buying a gold-locked briefcase and using hair gel products (neither went down very well in Northumberland, in northern England).

I took up smoking and gave up lunch (it was for wimps). And I told people that if they wanted a friend, they should get a dog.

So why does the thought of a Wall Street sequel and the comeback of the tanned, oiled and red-braced Gekko (played by Michael Douglas), fill me with dread?

Perhaps it's because I rewatched Wall Street the other day and saw a very different film from the one that so impressed me 20 years ago. I saw the clumsiness of Oliver Stone's screenplay, which in the final 20 minutes resembles a Bertolt Brecht morality play: greed isn't good, know your place, join the union, capitalism is evil.

Perhaps the most fist-biting moment comes after Bud Fox has turned his co-op into an Architectural Digest spread, thrown a wild party and made love for hours to Hannah. He wakes up before dawn, strolls out on to his balcony and asks the skyline: "Who am I?" Bloodcurdling, isn't it?

Fortunately, Gekko gets most of the screen time and deploys some of the best lines in modern cinema history ("Jesus, if this guy owned a funeral parlour nobody would die!").

I can only conclude that Wall Street was a Freudian slip by Stone: proof that, deep down, even liberal Hollywood types admire Gekko and his ilk.

But do Freudian slips happen twice? Unlikely. Which is why I fear for Gekko. Now that insider trading has lost its edge, I can only imagine the corporate sins for which he will now be blamed: energy trading, war profiteering, global warming ...

But Gekko was never a supporter of institutionalised greed; perhaps the most pernicious threat of modern times. Gekko argued for greed being good, "in all its forms ... greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge". Which still makes him the hero in my book.

The Times


http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21739408-2703,00.html
 
Re: Is This Greed at Its Worst

Wysiwyg said:
Everyone in the company contributes to the success.Some more than others.This greater sum of money will serve him no more purpose than half as much would.The other 15 million could be distributed to the employees.Oh, but that`s right,they aren`t worth it.sheeesh.:(
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Actually from what I've heard MAC bank has one of the best pay structures in the industry, particularly through performance bonuses.
 
Re: Is This Greed at Its Worst

clowboy said:
Actually from what I've heard MAC bank has one of the best pay structures in the industry, particulary through performance bonuses
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One of my neighbours works at Mac bank and appears to be keeping the local economy flying along by distributing his obviously large salary throughout the local tradesmen and merchants.
Money makes the economy go 'round. We need people that earn big and then spend (in Australia) big. I also approve of the large and growing percentage of funds Mac bank earned overseas and are distributing, through salaries and dividends, in Australia.
 
alan moss and all the board deserve every cent, look at their sp in 1996, and compare.. fair reward for excellence in growth.. no one can compare to them, these are supreme efforts and examples of brilliant decision makers at work.

if you look at banks and other asx companies and ask the same question you get a different answer, i dont think many of those directors get paid for merit, but this example is not the one to judge in that fashion imho.
 
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