New Rule: The Corker Doctrine

Headline of the Day:

Bailout Triggers Exec Pay Worries

Attorneys specializing in executive compensation are hearing from banking and finance executives forced to sign waivers of any right to challenge reductions in pay or benefits required when banks accept federal bailout money.

"People affected by the new rules are very skittish," said Stephen Zweig, a New York partner who is head of the employee benefits group at Ford & Harrison.

[…]

The rules vary somewhat in the separate programs, such as mandates that only automakers sell their private jets, but all prohibit incentives that encourage "unnecessary and excessive risks"; mandate "clawback" provisions for repayment of any bonus based on bookkeeping later proven to be inaccurate; and forbid "golden parachute" severance packages.

Paycuts are not fair, say executives, some of whom were only at the helm when the titanic hit iceberg, while others were responsible for the design of the Titanic.

But protestations of no fair only get you so far.

Query that to Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) or any of the autoworkers that Ol’Corky thinks get paid too much for his liking. As I remember Ol’Corky was pretty adamant that GM workers should be paid no more than workers employed at foreign auto companies.

This all leads back to the Corker Doctrine, which holds that American workers should receive no more compensation and benefits than workers at comparable foreign companies, (i.e., if executives run their company into the ground and need a federal loan).

Now a New Rule.

If you advocate wage cuts for folks on the factory floor at troubled companies, you must show equal enthusiasm for wage cuts to executive compensation at those same troubled companies.

Thus it has fallen to Bob Corker to put these ungrateful executives in their place and call for immediate reductions in executive compensation to bring wages and benefits in line with compensation paid at comparable European, Japanese or Canadian companies.

Corker must do this immediately or the Corker Doctrine may be seen as a political gimmick and Ol’Corky could be seen as an opportunist. Corky can't have this, can he?

UPDATE: So far Corker remains silent on Executive Pay Cuts. He was vocal about whacking those on the factory floor, but is silent about the Executives. No Larry King. No Press Conferences. Nothing. I don't understand why he remains silent on Exec Pay in light of his stand on cutting wages for Factory Workers.