Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Give Me this Kind of Accountability

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by

Dick Hall-Sizemore
in

by Dick Hall-Sizemore

Frequently, some commenters on this blog complain about politicians not being accountable and hold up the private sector as a model for accountability.  (For purposes of this discussion, we will ignore the fact that politicians have to go before the voters periodically and get reelected.)

Here is a recent example of accountability in the private sector, as reported in The New York Times. Over the last year the stock of Paramount has fallen 48 percent. The CEO did not pursue a possible deal that would have been lucrative for Paramount. The owner of a controlling share of the company is reported to feel that the CEO has not moved with enough urgency to get Paramount on firmer footing. She was unhappy with a long-range plan he had prepared and gave approval to three other senior executives to address the board of directors and express their misgivings about the direction of the company.

Today, Paramount announced that the CEO was stepping down effective immediately. In other words, he was fired.

But there is no need to shed any tears for him. He won’t need to file for unemployment benefits. Reportedly, “he is entitled to a severance package of $50.6 million, with $31 million of that in the form of cash for the two years after his employment is terminated.” Yep, that is some accountability.

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10 responses to “Give Me this Kind of Accountability”

  1. walter smith Avatar
    walter smith

    Ok, let’s go there. The payout is ridiculous and that is on the directors…and the shareholders…who get to vote in an annual meeting every year. For the ridiculous corporate policies and the ridiculous comp packages, I will point to things like Sarbanes Oxley, Dodd Frank, the ESG pushing proxy advisory firms, a worthless SEC, a monolithic politicized press that only reports negatively one way, the tax code limitations on deduction of executive compensation. And let’s not forget “the experts” who generally all went to the Jew hating schools and populate the finance and managerial ranks.

    Now let’s turn to politicians. You can pretty much repeat all my grievances above. They have immunity from lying on the floor. They have personal piggy banks in campaign funds. They get a pension for their “service” of spending the country into bankruptcy. They get to send their propaganda out for free (franking). If by some miracle they get removed, they keep the campaign funds and get a ridiculous corporate Board job at places like Raytheon or Boeing (Comey and Haley for example) or an investment bank (Cantor).

  2. LesGabriel Avatar
    LesGabriel

    I have always been puzzled when I hear that so-and-so is “entitled” to a huge severance package. Presumably this was something that was negotiated during the hiring phase, but why would a company agree to such inflated figures. It would seem to make more sense to put more cash out as bonusses for extraordinary performance than to someone who quits or is fired.

  3. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    But, but, the stigma…

  4. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    Corporate accountability? WTH?

  5. DJRippert Avatar
    DJRippert

    And Barack Obama was worth $3+M in 2008 but is worth $70+M today.

    Welcome to the land of the elite.

    2008:

    https://www.opensecrets.org/personal-finances/barack-obama/net-worth?cid=N00009638&year=2008

    2024:

    https://www.aol.com/barack-obama-net-worth-2023-190152420.html#:~:text=Barack%20Obama's%20Net%20Worth%3A%20%2470,net%20worth%20as%20%2470%20million.&text=Obama's%20net%20worth%20is%20in,president%20of%20the%20United%20States.

  6. Stephen Haner Avatar
    Stephen Haner

    Bottom line remains, Dick, the guy was pushed out for non performance and the outlines of his package was probably set long before. He probably would have gotten less if the firing was for law breaking or screwing his intern or dissing DEI, and not just for failing to make everybody as much money as they lusted after.

    As a major entertainment house, the potential profits on a great run of movies or TV shows, or from developing a world-dominating streaming source, would run into the billions. The money both ways is mind boggling.

  7. how_it_works Avatar
    how_it_works

    The difference here is that you can easily avoid buying Paramount products, using their services, or buying their stock.

    It’s easy to avoid doing business with them.

    It’s a little harder to avoid doing business with the local, state, and Federal government.

    1. Stephen Haner Avatar
      Stephen Haner

      I highly recommend avoiding their Paramount+ streaming. It is a technical nightmare, like the bad old days of dial in Internet….

      1. how_it_works Avatar
        how_it_works

        I think the last time I used a streaming service was the CBS one to watch old Columbo movies.

        Otherwise, I get my fill of video entertainment from Youtube, which I run with an ad-blocker so I don’t see any ads.

  8. Ronnie Chappell Avatar
    Ronnie Chappell

    Perhaps you’d prefer something along these lines.
    https://www.wsj.com/world/asia/she-was-convicted-of-making-a-bank-her-personal-atmand-sentenced-to-death-3a952bab?mod=hp_lead_pos9

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