Evil Empires
April 04, 2011
I guess today is the easiest workday in history, if you happen to be a writer for The Daily Show.
If you haven't seen it, Transocean issued a proxy statement (whatever the hell that is) calling 2010 their best safety year ever and disclosing millions of dollars in pay hikes and salary increases for top executives.
I suppose I wasn't paying attention in previous years when Transocean projects killed more than 11 people and ruined even more of the world's most fragile ecosystems.
This story broke on Friday, and I really, truly think there was a conversation between a senior official at Transocean and a lady in the PR department making $40K/year (I'll call her Polly) who was responsible for writing the statement.
Once upon a time, I believed in supply and demand as the great regulator. Good companies would thrive, bad ones would go out of business. Boards of directors make sure the executives stay on the up and up.
It's a bitter truth, but that notion is entirely incorrect. The past decade has taught me better. Boards heap millions on top of millions on CEOs while average workers are told that the economic downturn keeps them from getting a raise this year. Sure, they're free to move, but every company is the same.
Then the companies get to the point where they're "too big to fail," and the taxpayer is left bailing out banks and auto makers in the interest of saving our entire economy.
Meanwhile, corporate executives stay oblivious to all that goes on down here in the real world.