I just wanted to juxtapose two situations that are similar but very different. The first relates to a person who lost their job when the factory he worked at closed. The second relates to a person who lost his job because he did a terrible job costing his company billions of dollars.
After 30 years at a factory making truck parts, Jeffrey Evans was earning $14.55 an hour in what he called “one of the better-paying jobs in the area.”… Wearing a Harley-Davidson cap, a bittersweet reminder of crushed dreams, he recently described how astonished and betrayed he felt when the plant was shut down in August after a labor dispute. Despite sporadic construction work, Mr. Evans has seen his income reduced by half.From the NYT here.
So he was astonished yet again to find himself, at age 49, selling off his cherished Harley and most of his apartment furniture and moving in with his mother.
Former Merrill Lynch & Co. Chief Executive Stan O'Neal has found a new home: Alcoa Inc., which Friday named Mr. O'Neal as a director.From The Wall Street Journal here. Sphere: Related Content
The move came a day after Merrill Lynch reported a $9.8 billion loss for the fourth quarter, the worst in the firm's 94-year history. The results were driven by $16.7 billion in losses on complex securities, subprime mortgages and other debt that piled up as the bank took what ratings firms have said were excessive risks under Mr. O'Neal's watch….
Mr. O'Neal left Merrill with benefits valued at $161.5 million from various pension plans and stock grants.
3 comments:
Sounds reasonable; You have to understand O'Neal and Evans lead very different lives that account for the differences in their stories. O'Neal is probably heavy on investing which means he helps to stimulate the economy with his money; he creates jobs and prosperity through out the land. The most Evans could hope to do is create prosperity for a single family, his own. It doesn’t sound nice I know, but life isn’t fair. We can stand to loss a lot more Evanses then we can O'Neals. This is just the free market looking out for the collective instead of the individual.
O.o I just hope I'm not an Evans
Yeah, but you might want to get your money out of Alcoa. But then, maybe O'Neal will understand that business better.
See, in my opinion, people like O'Neal were making way too much money for creating systemic leverage that, in the end, financed consumption rather than sustainable production and job growth. I see nothing noble or economically beneficial about it.
Alcoa - $9.25.
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