Recent Blog Posts
-
When Call-Center Scripts Go Bad
May 25 20128:38 am EDT -
Zynga on the Defense
May 24 20123:02 pm EDT -
Facebook Fallout Includes PR Fail
May 24 20129:25 am EDT -
Space Drama to Be Continued
May 21 20129:42 am EDT -
What Made Groupon Go Pop?
May 18 20129:34 am EDT -
Study Finds Millennials are Underbanked
May 17 201212:35 pm EDT -
Mad Men Not Impressed With Facebook IPO
May 17 201210:13 am EDT -
Pricing Experiment in Progress
May 16 201211:02 am EDT -
Did I Tweet That Out Loud?
May 15 20129:44 am EDT -
Revenge of the Liberal Arts Major
May 14 20122:58 pm EDT
Nice Work If You Can Lose It
Believe it or not, the most outrageous news out of Royal Bank of Scotland today is not that it lost £40 billion last year -- £24.1 billion on its own, and the rest through its catastrophic investment in the Dutch bank ABN Amro.
The most outrageous news is the ultra-cushy retirement package that the bank -- now effectively owned by British taxpayers -- has agreed to pay to the man who steered the company into the iceberg.
As Sir Fred Goodwin was being pushed out the door, the bank added £8 million pounds to his retirement account, bringing his annual pension to £693,000, or almost precisely $1 million.
Why the last-minute bump? Because, the bank explained, he was allowed to retire rather than be fired.
The British Treasury's reaction to the news was swift and unpleasant. "This is another example of the culture of rewards for failure that we are determined to sweep away for the future," Treasury minister Stephen Timms said. "We are committed to cleaning up the banking system -- both the financial balance sheets and the behavior of those that lead them."
by Mark Stein
Comments
If you are commenting using a Facebook account, your profile information may be displayed with your comment depending on your privacy settings. By leaving the 'Post to Facebook' box selected, your comment will be published to your Facebook profile in addition to the space below.
