So here we go again, a few numbers which may give us an idea on who’s on the giving end and who’s the receiving end of the Great Recession in the USA.
Let’s start with those who sit downstream bearing the brunt of the crash:
According to the Labor Department worker productivity grew at the fastest pace in nearly six years in the spring while labor costs fell by the most in nine years, as companies slashed costs to survive the recession.
The Labor Department reports that productivity, the amount of output per hour of work, rose at an annual rate of 6.6 percent in the April-June quarter, the largest advance since the summer of 2003. Please note that that happened just as the New Economy burst, do you see a pattern here?
According to NPR economists expected an increase of 6.4 percent, matching the government’s initial estimate …what a relief. In the meantime labor costs fell at an annual rate of 5.9 percent. That’s the largest drop since the second quarter of 2000, and slightly bigger than the 5.8 percent decline estimated a month ago….if the banks had lost a .1 percent more of estimated profits they would be screaming bloody murder and would have fired a few thousand more employees, but of course being those not executive salaries nobody feels that we should worry about it.
And this brings us to those who are upstream from the recession, for example CEOs and banks executives:
Andrew J. Hall, top trader at Citigroup–which received about $50 billion in emergency rescue money from the TARP plus a $306 billion toxic assets guarantee from Uncle Sam–has been promised a $100 million compensation package.
Brian Weadock, top trader at Bank of America–$20bn in government aid plus a $118bn of guarantees against bad assets–will receive 12 million. Phew, just a few peanuts.
Robert Benmosche, CEO AIG–$80 billion rescue package–wil receive $10.5 million.
Michael Jeffries of Abercrombie & Fitch last year pay climbed 39% even though the retailer’s stock fell 72%.
James J. Mulva ConocoPhillips’ CEO in January cut 4% of the Houston oil giant’s workforce, two months later the company announced that Mulva had earned $29 million on top of nearly $100 million he had made in the two prior years.
And reading media reports it seems that the list goes on and on, should I say more?
Paolo Pontoniere is a Neapolitan Journalist, who has been living in California for years and writes for major Italian media. Paraphrasing Charles V of Bourbon he would say that his interests curiosity never rests.
From Stones to sex, from science to conscience, from politics to pandemics, he follows with equal passion all events of which it is worth telling a story. Twists and turns of life led him to become an economic reporter, but as it happened with the Che, it was all due to a misunderstanding.
When his editors at the time asked during an editorial meeting if anybody knew anything about the economy he said yes, but he meant to say that to survive he didn’t need much. You see it was one of those artsy copy offices, full of practitioners of experimental arts; dreamers who breathed big ideas, had high minded ideals and lived on nothing else but sandwiches and cigarettes. Now things are different though. To live and work in Baghdad By the Bay one needs serious money, and he says, he too now understands the real Economy.
