What did you do with your 13.9% pay increase in 2011 and your 22.8% pay increase in 2010? It’s good to be the 1%.
The average CEO pay of companies in the S&P 500 Index rose to $12.94 million in 2011. Overall, the average level of CEO pay in the S&P 500 Index increased 13.9 percent in 2011, following a 22.8 percent increase in CEO pay in 2010.
dd says:
so true, Admin.
remind me of our Facebook bet: as i recall it was down 50% one year from its IPO, with the starting price being 1pm on the day of the IPO.
my memory sucks but that was what i thought we agreed to.
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20th April 2012 at 1:34 pm
Administrator says:
dd
It was 11:00 am on the IPO day.
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20th April 2012 at 1:44 pm
Administrator says:
Great news, folks. If you find yourself in a pinch for money, just give Chesapeake’s CEO a call, he might be able to help you out.
“How is this possible?” you might be wondering? It appears that simple loophole logic has allowed Mr. McClendon to borrow $1.1 billion (with a “b”) by mortgaging his interest in the company’s gas wells as collateral. What’s absolutely horrifying about this whole situation is the loan itself is just the beginning of questionable practices at the company.
To start, these loans were made by three companies that Mr. McClendon controls that list Chesapeake’s corporate address as the originating address. Even better, these loans are being used to finance the build-out of the same wells that Mr. McClendon is using as collateral. If that isn’t a direct conflict of interests then I’m a unicorn!
Where’s the Securities and Exchange Commission through all of this? Sitting on their hands, because they can’t do a thing about it. You see, Mr. McClendon backed his loans with the wells instead of personal stock which is beyond the legal jurisprudence of the SEC. We’ve got enough loopholes here to start a hula hoop factory.
To the corner, Mr. McClendon
But wait — there’s more!
What compounds this enormously unwise loan and using his stake in Chesapeake’s wells as collateral is the fact that Mr. McClendon seems to have the money-managing skills of Alicia Silverstone’s character in Clueless.
According to Forbes, in 2008, Mr. McClendon was forced to sell nearly his entire stake in Chesapeake Energy to cover — get this — a $552 million margin call! As if selling millions of shares wasn’t enough punishment for shareholders, Mr. McClendon got the company’s directors to purchase his antique map collection for $12.1 million.
For those of you skimming this article, allow me to repeat this because I think this is one of the most egregious wastes of money I have seen yet. Chesapeake’s board authorized the use of $12.1 million in corporate cash to buy a collection of vintage maps from its CEO who needed the money to cover a margin call. Somehow an open-jawed smiley-face here wouldn’t quite do me justice.
But that wasn’t even the end of it. The company awarded Mr. McClendon nearly $100 million in incentives, of which $75 million was part of “well cost incentive” — the same incentive he appears to have collateralized to obtain his $1.1 billion loan. In addition, the company’s board lowered the required stake its CEO was to have in Chesapeake’s stock in response to Mr. McClendon having to sell his shares to cover his margin call.
Chesapeake Energy is already suffering from the lowest natural gas prices since 2001 and recently cut back dry gas capital expenditures by $2.2 billion from 2011. Although some of the largest names in the industry have curtailed production, including Canada’s EnCana (NYSE: ECA ) and Ultra Petroleum (NYSE: UPL ) , it’s Chesapeake, which supplies 8.3% of the United States’ natural gas, that’s feeling the biggest pinch as natural gas prices head lower. When you add in this week’s PR circus, you have a recipe for disaster.
Mr. McClendon, you’re a shame to the rest of us Bastille Day babies!
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20th April 2012 at 2:20 pm
bluestem says:
I would like a vintage map. John
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20th April 2012 at 3:50 pm
John says:
How many remember this? April 20, 1914: The Ludlow Massacre
Τhe Ludlow Massacre was an attack by the Colorado National Guard on a tent colony of 1200 striking coal miners and their families at Ludlow, Colorado on April 20, 1914.
The Ludlow Massacre was a watershed moment in American labor relations. Historian Howard Zinn has described the Ludlow Massacre as “the culminating act of perhaps the most violent struggle between corporate power and laboring men in American history”. Congress responded to public outcry by directing the House Committee on Mines and Mining to investigate the incident. Its report, published in 1915, was influential in promoting child labor laws and an eight-hour work day.
[...]
http://whataboutmarx.blogspot.com/2012/04/how-many-remember-this-april-20-1914.html
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20th April 2012 at 7:52 pm
a cruel accountant says:
John
In our current time, A corporate fascist = a union fascist.
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20th April 2012 at 8:51 pm
a cruel accountant says:
Admin
I am thinking of starting a mREIT 3X EFT. You in?
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20th April 2012 at 8:55 pm
DaveL says:
That was a great chart, until I got to the lower right hand corner.
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20th April 2012 at 11:56 am
Administrator says:
That says a lot about you. Is the information now not true? I hate idealogues who choose not to think.
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20th April 2012 at 12:06 pm
DaveL says:
C’mon Jim. All your information is true. The AFL/CIO doesn’t cherry pick information any more than the BLS, CIA, NSA, TBP etc. I think you hate people who choose not to eat every bit of the apple.
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20th April 2012 at 2:07 pm
Administrator says:
DaveL
Do something useful with that pea brain and find factual information to refute anything in that graphic. I’d love to see you do some actual intellectual work rather than reading your sarcastic drivel that never adds one iota of useful information to any dialogue on this site.
You truly add nothing to this site.
And I’m being completely honest. Why do you even comment if you have nothing useful to add?
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20th April 2012 at 2:53 pm
Milw05 says:
Don’t blame the messenger. If you look close enough you can see where the numbers come from sources such as the US Census bureau or the University of California Dept of Economics, etc. I’m sure the AFL-CIO has an agenda, but facts don’t lie.
Lets not kid ourselves here. I and everyone on this board, except DaveL, know these guys are working the system. IMO I don’t see any correlation between paying these CEO’s more money and positive results. It looks like a money grab to me. As long as the board of Directors is stacked with your friends, who you’ll pay back in return, things will never change. This has very little with running a company properly. It’s all about getting mine.
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20th April 2012 at 4:37 pm