Here's Why The New CEO Pay Rule Could Backfire On Its Advocates

When the Securities and Exchange Commission released its CEO pay rule this week, many cheered it as a way to shame companies into moderating outlandish pay packages.
The rule, which goes into effect in 2017, mandates that publicly-traded companies disclose the gap between what their top executives are paid and what their rank and file workers make.
As the New York Times' Gretchen Morgenson put it, "because the rule will generate an easily graspable and often decidedly shocking number, it may energize a cadre of new combatants in the executive pay fight." It could have the opposite effect.


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SEC and Homeland Security need Web backup, GAO says

REUTERS, 10/26/2009 by Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor - WASHINGTON: Securities exchanges have a sound network back-up if a severe pandemic keeps people home and clogging the Internet, but the Homeland Security Department has done little planning, Congressional investigators said on Monday. ∴ The department does not even have a plan to start work on the issue, the General Accountability Office said. ∴ But the Homeland Security Department accused the GAO of having unrealistic expectations of how the Internet could be managed if millions began to telework from home at the same time as bored or sick schoolchildren were playing online, sucking up valuable bandwidth. Read more at Reuters...

Is this a lead-in to giving the President authority to control the Internet in case of an 'emergency?' --bc Read More......

Wyden, Merkley to return Madoff money

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden and Senator-elect Jeff Merkley said they will donate money they received from disgraced Wall Street money manager Bernard L. Madoff to charity. Madoff, 70, was arrested last week for securities fraud in what prosecutors are calling a $50 billion scheme to bilk investors. He remains free on $10 million bail. Federal campaign records show that Wyden collected $33,000 from Madoff and members of his immediate family between 1979 and 2008. He also gave $2,300 in April to Merkley, The Oregonian newspaper reported. Read more at the Gazette-Times...

SEC launches Madoff probe, says decade of warnings ignored
SEC Chairman Christopher Cox late Tuesday announced a probe into how his financial regulatory body failed to detect an alleged 50-billion-dollar fraud scheme that Bernard Madoff is accused of running despite a decade of warning signs. More at Breitbart.com... Read More......