THERE MAY BE NO GREATER THREAT TO AMERICA THAN THE DEMOCRAT PARTY! - THE PARTY OF BOTTOMLESS BANKSTER BAILOUTS, BILLIONAIRES FOR OPEN BORDERS AND BRIBES SUCKING LAWYER-POLITICIANS!
Pay packages for US CEOs hit record for sixth year in a row
Trader Joe’s cut retirement benefits during pandemic
Retirement Rescheduled: Bidenflation Prevents Americans From Living Out Their Golden Years
A quarter of Americans are reconsidering their plans to relax on the beach and play pickleball, telling the BMO Real Financial Index that inflation under President Joe Biden is forcing them to delay retirement.
"Prices across the board—from cars and gasoline to groceries and other everyday essentials—are rising at the fastest pace since the 1980s," said BMO Harris Bank executive Paul Dilda. "Consumers must think differently about their finances in this inflationary environment."
Inflation hit a 40-year-record high under the Biden administration. Many economists, including former Obama administration advisers, have blamed the sky-high inflation numbers on Biden's policies. While the president in a May 30 op-ed acknowledged the country's economic woes, he blamed inflation on Vladimir Putin, energy markets, and supply chains.
The research showed that 21 percent of Americans have reduced their retirement savings and 36 percent of Americans have reduced their overall savings. Younger Americans were most affected, as more than 60 percent of those surveyed between the ages of 18 and 34 said they have reduced contributions to their savings.
Almost 60 percent of all surveyed individuals said inflation adversely affected their personal finances, a quarter of whom said they have suffered a major impact. A large majority of Americans surveyed, 80 percent, said they plan to alter their lifestyles by changing how they grocery shop, minimizing driving, and eating at restaurants less, according to the index.
"Some Americans likely will delay retirement in response to higher inflation," American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Andrew Biggs told the Washington Free Beacon. "However, low-income Americans who receive most of their retirement income through Social Security are largely protected against inflation via Cost of Living Adjustments."
Other causes for late retirements, Biggs said, include the COVID-19 pandemic and the decline in the stock market.
BMO surveyed more than 3,400 individuals during this index, which lasted from March 30 to April 25.
Democrat Ro Khanna Slams Joe Biden for 40-Year-High Inflation: ‘Way More Biden Can Do’
Democrat Rep. Ro Khanna (CA) on Thursday slammed President Joe Biden for failing to reduce 40-year-high inflation.
In a New York Times article titled, “There Is Way More Biden Can Do to Lower Prices,” Khanna scolded Biden for failing to create a feasible plan to reduce the inflation his administration fueled.
“There is no patience for incrementalism or political spin about economic numbers in these times. Democrats can’t just blame the Republicans for lacking a plan,” he wrote. “People elected us to solve problems. We told them that government could improve their lives and they want to see tangible action, movement and energy out of Washington.”
Khanna recognized Biden had mounted a public relations campaign to shift the blame of inflation onto others but suggested a public relations campaign is not sufficient to reduce costs for Americans. “We need an all-out mobilization, not just a few ad hoc initiatives reacting to headlines,” he continued.
The article suggested three big government ideas for Biden to consider: 1) The federal government should buy energy and resell it to the American people for less money, 2) Biden should assemble a task force “to lower and stabilize short-term prices of volatile goods like food and fuel,” 3) Biden should “provide generous wage subsidies for American workers during the shortages.”
All three of Khanna’s suggestions are consistent with the Democrats’ political philosophy of growing the federal government to fix crises. Yet he called on Biden to reject the typical Democrat “orthodoxy” to take “decisive action.”
“Let’s reject the orthodoxy that makes us timid and dilatory about government intervention and show that our government is still capable of decisive action when it comes to both demand and supply,” he wrote.
Khanna, a far-left populist House member, failed to mention that Biden could attack inflation by ending his war on American energy. Breitbart News reported on Biden’s war on American energy:
Biden has waged war on both public and private financing of oil drilling while subsidizing green-new-deal-like energy plans. As a result, American oil production is down from 2019, the year before the pandemic. Hard numbers suggest 2022 oil production is 12 million barrels per day, or eight percent less than in 2019.
Biden has made it increasingly more difficult for oil companies to gain financing to drill on private lands. He has also halted new drilling on public lands and terminated the Keystone Pipeline project that would have transported vast amounts of oil to American refineries.
With gas prices setting another record of $4.715 on Thursday, inflation will cost American households on average an extra $5,200 in 2022, or $433 per month, according to Bloomberg. Inflation is also set to delay 25 percent of Americans from retirement, a BMO Real Financial Progress Index survey revealed.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter and Gettr @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
Biden’s Pitch to Voters: You’re Wrong About the Economy, Stupid
Democrats unveil plan to solve inflation by 'highlighting the remarkable progress we've made'
President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party finally have a plan to get inflation under control and address the economic anxiety felt by millions of Americans. It's not a plan in the conventional sense, but rather a public relations campaign to convince the American people that "despite their current misgivings, the economy is actually doing quite well."
Inflation is soaring and gas prices are through the roof, but Americans are wrong to be concerned about the direction of the country, the president and his allies will argue this month. Politico reports that Biden has assembled a team of experts and professional communicators to make the case that, actually, the economy is good. The White House effort to "communicate on our accomplishments" kicked off on Monday with a Wall Street Journal op-ed in which Biden touted his stewardship of "the most robust recovery in modern history" and cited a bunch of macroeconomic statistics to make his case.
Polling shows that the vast majority of Americans don't think Biden is doing a good job handling the economy. These Americans are wrong, Biden argued in his op-ed. "According to the International Monetary Fund, the U.S. economy will be larger at the end of this year—relative to its prepandemic size—than any other Group of 7 economy," he wrote. Maybe that will convince them. In case the op-ed wasn't compelling enough to change hearts and minds, Biden will deliver remarks in response to the May jobs report on Friday that will highlight "the remarkable progress we've made."
The dubious public relations campaign is in keeping with the Democratic Party's longstanding belief that all of their electoral problems could be solved by simply explaining to skeptical voters that they have no good reason to be skeptical. It is also indicative of a White House in disarray. Biden is reportedly furious at his subordinates for failing to come up with a winning message ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, and White House chief of staff Ron Klain is rumored to be on the chopping block. Anita Dunn, a longtime Biden aide who once provided "damage control advice" to disgraced Hollywood rapist Harvey Weinstein, could take his place after the midterms.
Establishment Media Acknowledge Biden’s Failing Public Relations Spin on Economy
The establishment media on Friday acknowledged that President Joe Biden’s positive spin on the economy is failing.
Five days after Biden officially launched a public relations effort to convince Americans the struggling economy is strong, the establishment media have admitted “the administration has had a very difficult time getting a clear economic message to Americans pinched by higher prices and uncertain about future prospects.”
In an article titled, “Biden’s new challenge: Putting a positive spin on a slowing economy,” Politico noted Biden is “trying to pull off a very difficult messaging pivot: Warn people the economy is about to slow down and convince them that it’s a good thing.”
On May 10, Biden spoke about 40-year-high inflation and claimed the nation had made enormous economic strides. “As I go across the country, our economy has gone from being on the mend to on the move,” Biden said. “This will not be my only speech on inflation, I’m sure. But when you look at the economy today, it’s clear that we’ve made enormous strides.”
Gas prices for regular unleaded gasoline, at four dollars and ninety nine cents, are expected to be priced higher than five dollars a gallon this week, May 16, 2022, in Brooklyn, New York. (Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)
According to Bloomberg, inflation will cost American households on average an extra $5,200 in 2022, or $433 per month. Inflation will also delay 25 percent of Americans from retiring, the BMO Real Financial Progress Index survey revealed.
Biden’s positive spin on inflation has not impressed the establishment media. On Friday, CNN published the title, “3 signs that the US economy is already losing steam.” The article highlighted the May jobs report, the housing market interest rate hike, and slowing growth predictions as indications the economy is slowing under Biden’s watch.
“Fears about whether America could fall into a recession are dominating conversations among investors and pose a risk to the Biden administration ahead of midterm elections this fall,” CNN analyzed.
The establishment media has also noticed that Biden’s public relations campaign actually admits the economy is headed in the wrong direction.
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On Thursday, the Washington Post published an article titled, “Biden is finally getting honest about inflation.” The Post noted Biden’s public relations campaign has made blunders, such as admitting the Fed and White House were wrong to call inflation transitory. “It’s not every day that politicians admit they made a mistake,” the article said.
The Post also acknowledged that Biden’s “$1.9 trillion rescue package in March 2021 was too large” because it fueled inflation. “He can’t correct that now,” the article continued about 40-year-high inflation, “but he needs to make good choices” moving forward.
On Wednesday, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon predicted poor economic times are ahead. “The hurricane is right out there down the road coming our way,” he said. “We just don’t know if it’s a minor one or Superstorm Sandy. You better brace yourself.”
Pay packages for US CEOs hit record for sixth year in a row
Trader Joe’s cut retirement benefits during pandemic
Workers at the major grocery chain Trader Joe’s saw their retirement benefits slashed during the pandemic. Hidden in the company’s internal January newsletter, called The Bulletin, was a change to “discretionary” contributions. While the company did not describe the alteration as a cut, the consequences were clear to workers.
Typically, Trader Joe’s workers receive contributions to their 401(k) plan as a lump sum equal to 10 percent of their wage. This is a relatively large amount for the supermarket industry and is well above market standard of 3-6 percent offered by other companies, including those that have union contracts. Even workers who do not opt to invest part of their pay into their plan receive this amount.
This benefit has been a part of Trader Joe’s brand image as a liberal, worker friendly company for years. In 2019, it was named the nation’s number one place to work by Forbes.
But the recent cuts expose the falsehood that capitalists can exploit the working class in a friendly manner. Ultimately, the interests of the market and the crisis of capitalism demand that the company lower labor costs and extract as much profit from workers as possible.
Despite annual sales of $6.6 billion and a yearly growth rate of 15 percent, according to Supermarket News, the chain has lower profit margins than most big name stores. Additionally, the international demands of finance capital to suppress wages in the name of “controlling inflation” have considerable weight.
In pursuit of these aims, the company decided to enact a draconian system to cut the retirement benefits of its employees. The maximum contribution from the company was cut to 5 percent for workers with less than 10 years at the company, effectively imposing a secret wage cut worth up to thousands of dollars a year.
Even those who have worked at Trader Joe’s for 10 years are likely to suffer a cut, either now or in the future. The 10 percent contribution only applies to workers who have worked at least 700 hours for every year of the last 10 years. That means that any person who had to take time off for an illness, injury, or other reason could lose half of their retirement fund contribution, even if that reduction in hours was years ago.
For the average Trader Joe’s worker the cut to retirement benefits is equivalent to a pay cut of around $1,500-$2,000/year.
Additionally, workers must work for the company for six years before they can have access to their retirement funds, essentially holding workers’ money hostage to encourage employee retention.
The change to the retirement plan has angered many workers at Trader Joe’s, and has sparked a unionization campaign at a store in Hadley, Massachusetts.
One worker and union organizer, Sarah Yosef, told More Perfect Union that “The customers really, really have this idea that Trader Joe’s is this amazing place to work and they take such good care of us because that used to be true. I think everything that we’re asking for is what Trader Joe’s is pretending to give us.” She also noted that the company used the passage of the Affordable Care Act to cut back on health care benefits, particularly for part-time workers who used to be eligible for full health benefits.
Another worker, Woody Hoagland, spoke on how he was denied his health insurance coverage after being diagnosed with cancer in 2019. “I know that they didn’t want to see me dead from cancer, but they also didn’t want to pay any more than they had to. And as soon as they were able to remove me from their health insurance they did.”
A number of workers at the Hadley location announced the formation of Trader Joe’s United, a self-described “independent union,” in an open letter to CEO Dan Bane earlier this month.
In the letter, the organizing committee stated, “Trader Joe’s has continued to slash our benefits as our wages stagnate and our safety concerns go unaddressed. We’ve come to the conclusion that, in fact, a union is the only way to protect and improve our pay and benefits.”
“Yet no union came to us. We organized ourselves . . . Together, we reached out to a union for legal and logistical support . . . And together, we will win our election and plan for our contract negotiations,” the letter declared.
This is not the first time that a unionization effort has developed at Trader Joe’s, which currently does not have any unionized stores. Some Trader Joe’s workers had formed a unionization committee at the beginning of the pandemic, demanding greater health and safety protections from the company. The company cracked down, firing several workers and settling an unfair labor practices lawsuit. The Trader Joe’s Union Coalition fell apart by July of 2021.
As part of the crackdown, CEO Dan Bane sent out a letter to employees in March 2020 discouraging attempts of workers to organize. It included a link to a website with a list of “union contract facts,” which organizers of the Trader Joe’s United believe was created to present poor union contracts and create disillusionment with union organizing.
It is noteworthy that the first contract listed on the site was the recent King Soopers contract in Denver, Colorado. As the WSWS reported, the United Food and Commercial Workers union imposed the deal—which was nearly identical to the company proposal rejected by rank-and-file workers—after the UFCW betrayed an 11-day strike at King Soopers’ Denver stores.
The desire for workers at Trader Joe’s, Starbucks, Amazon and other employers to organize and collectively fight is fully understandable and should be supported by all workers. It is not possible to beat back the attack by giant corporations without organization. But the UFCW, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the Teamsters and the other official AFL-CIO unions have proven to be the greatest obstacles to the organization of workers for a genuine struggle.
Whether workers vote in such unions or not, they need their own organizations, controlled democratically by rank-and-file workers, which are not tied to the corporations and political establishment by a million threads. This means forming rank-and-file committees of the most trusted and militant workers to organize a fight that relies on the initiative and power of the working class. These committees will be committed to fight for what workers need—including living wages, fully paid health and pension benefits, and workers’ control of the pace of work and health and safety. They will not be afraid to go beyond the narrow confines of the US labor relations system, which is based above all on “management’s rights,” not the rights of workers.
The organizers for Trader Joe’s United, who say they have the support of two-thirds of 100 workers at the Hadley store, say they are carrying out an “Amazon Labor Union style” unionizing campaign.
But the experiences with the ALU demonstrate the failure of this approach. The ALU won the first election at an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island, New York by distancing itself from the AFL-CIO unions, whose decades of sold-out struggles had led to the defeat of one unionization campaign after another.
But no sooner had the ALU won the vote that it immediately reached out to the Teamsters and other pro-company unions and Democratic Party politicians who serve the interests of big business. This was epitomized by President Biden’s decision to invite ALU President Chris Smalls and organizers from Starbucks United to a private White House meeting in early May.
Biden—who has spent his entire career as a shill for big business—knows that the official unions are not organizations of working class struggle but instruments of the corporations and the government to suppress the opposition of workers to declining living standards, inequality and war. The ALU and Starbucks United, which is affiliated with the SEIU, are looking for support from the government and pro-business unions and are therefore incapable of leading a struggle by workers that would lead to an inevitable clash with these forces.
The future and orientation of Trader Joe’s United is uncertain. No vote has been scheduled, though the local management has reportedly promised to not interfere in the vote. Corporate management has so far not made a public comment on the unionization effort.
Trader Joe’s United organizers have also met with established unions to seek “assistance.” The union, however, is not named and there is no indication to what extent they are connected. In any case, such “assistance” would come with strings attached.
Collective organization is absolutely necessary. But bitter experience has demonstrated the need to build new organizations that answer to workers, not the pro-company unions and the Democratic Party. Trader Joe’s workers interested in learning more about rank-and-file committees, should contact us for more information.
Survey: Inflation to Delay 25 Percent of Americans from Retirement
President Joe Biden’s inflation is set to delay 25 percent of Americans from retirement, a Tuesday BMO Real Financial Progress Index survey revealed.
“As a result of inflation, 36% of Americans have reduced their savings and 21% have reduced their retirement savings. A quarter of Americans will need to delay their retirement,” the survey reported.
“Younger Americans are feeling the most impact – over 60% of those aged 18-34 said they had to reduce contributions to their savings,” it added.
The loss of net household income is changing Americans living patterns. The survey found that 80 percent of Americans will have to change their purchasing habits to offset Biden’s inflation:
- 42% are changing how they shop for groceries. This includes opting for cheaper items, avoiding brand names and buying only the essentials.
- 46% are either dining out less or consciously spending less when dining out.
- 31% are driving less to offset the soaring cost of gas.
- 23% are spending less on vacations or canceling them altogether.
- 22% are taking measures such as canceling subscriptions to the gym, cable, etc.
The BMO and Ipsos poll measures sentiment around financial confidence. The survey sampled 3,407 adults 18 years and older from March 30 to April 25.
Inflation will cost American households on average an extra $5,200 in 2022, or $433 per month, according to Bloomberg.
On Monday, Biden launched a public relations campaign in the establishment media to protect his weakening political position on inflation. On Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen admitted during a press interview that she and the president had failed to accurately assess that inflation would climb to a 40-year-high. The White House had claimed in 2021 that inflation was “transitory.”
On Wednesday, Biden blamed his aides for his 40-year-high inflation, according to the Washington Post. “Biden has privately grumbled to top White House officials over the administration’s handling of inflation, expressing frustration over the past several months that aides were not doing enough to confront the problem directly,” the publication reported.
Oxfam report: As millions face starvation food giants’ profits soar
Hundreds of millions of people around the world are being hit by unprecedented food price inflation and shortages and are confronting outright starvation. But the giant companies that dominate food production and distribution are raking in money like never before.
The food crisis, resulting from total subordination of the means of life to capitalist profit, forms a centrepiece of the latest update on global inequality prepared by the UK-based aid agency Oxfam. This is in advance of the World Economic Forum meeting, the gathering of the world’s economic and financial elites, being held in Davos, Switzerland, this week.
The inflationary food crisis, set off as a result of the refusal of capitalist governments to take action to eliminate the COVID-19 pandemic, has been intensified by the US-led NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine.
Last week UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said global hunger levels were at a new high, with the number of food insecure people doubling from 135 million to 276 million in the past two years.
With the supplies of fertilisers and other agricultural inputs severely disrupted, the crisis has no end in sight.
The latest Oxfam report details how global agribusinesses, as well as the energy companies, are profiting out of this human misery.
Global food prices have risen by 33.5 percent in the past two years and are expected to rise by another 23 percent this year. March recorded the biggest leap in food prices since the UN began collecting food price data in 1990.
“Corporations and the billionaire dynasties who control so much of our food system are seeing their profits soar,” the report said, noting that 62 food billionaires had been created in the last two years.
The report directed particular attention to the global food giant Cargill, one of the world’s largest private companies and one of four firms that control more than 70 percent of the global market for agricultural products.
The combined wealth of Cargill family members has increased by $14.4 billion since 2020, a rise of 65 percent. It grew by almost $20 million a day during the pandemic, driven by food price rises, especially for grains.
The company had a net income of $5 billion during 2021, the biggest in its history, and paid out $1.13 billion in dividends, largely to family members. It is expected to make record profits again this year.
Cargill is not the only one raking in the money. One of its main rivals, the agricultural trading firm Louis Dreyfus reported that its profits surged by 82 percent last year, on the back of rising grain and oilseed prices.
At the other end of the food supply chain, Oxfam noted that the US supermarket chain Walmart paid out $16 billion last year in the form of dividends and share buybacks to holders of its stock. Just 5.9 percent of an average basket of groceries went to small-scale farmers.
The average annual salary for the Walmart employee is just $20,942 but if the money handed out to shareholders was devoted to the company’s 1.6 million employees average wages would rise to $30,904 per year.
The other major beneficiaries of the inflation crisis, driving down the living conditions of workers all over the world, are the major oil companies, which have doubled their profit margins in the two years of the pandemic. The price of crude oil has risen by 53 percent over the past year and natural gas by 148 percent. The energy price hikes are a significant contributor to the rise in food and transport costs.
“The companies that are part of the world’s energy supply chain are making a killing [quite literally in view of the threat of starvation] out of these prices increases. Over the past year, profits across the energy sector have increased by 45 percent … Billionaires in the oil, gas and coal sector have seen their wealth increase by $53.5 billion [24 percent] in real terms in the past two years,” the report said.
The same picture is revealed in the pharmaceutical industry where the pandemic has resulted in the creation of 43 new billionaires, “profiting from the monopolies their companies hold over vaccines, treatments, tests and personal protective equipment.”
When such issues are raised, the reply of the “free market” defenders is that this wealth is the justifiable “reward” for entrepreneurship and spending on research without which the development of new drugs and vaccines would not take place.
This has always been a lie and never more so. As the report noted, most of the fortunes of the new pharma billionaires “is thanks to billions in public funding—for instance, from R&D grants and procurement” by governments.
Moderna, whose only product is a COVID-19 vaccine, has a 70 percent profit margin. “It has been immensely successful in turning $10 billion government funding in the US … into around $12 billion vaccine profits to date.”
The company has created four vaccine billionaires with a combined personal wealth of $10 billion, while just 1 percent of its vaccines have gone to poorer countries. At the same time, it has refused to cooperate with efforts to establish local manufacturing in low- and middle-income countries.
The story is the same at Pfizer. The profit margin on its vaccine is 43 percent and last year it paid out $8.7 billion in dividends. In order to protect its profit flow, Pfizer has joined with other pharmaceutical companies to prevent the waiver of intellectual property rights that would see vaccine prices fall sharply. Millions of dollars have been spent on lobbying operations to try to prevent this happening.
In its overall analysis of the inflationary crisis and the explosion of billionaire wealth, the report noted that billionaires have increased their wealth as much in 24 months as they did in the previous 23 years, with those in the food and energy sectors increasing their fortunes by a billion dollars every two days.
A new billionaire “has been minted on average every 30 hours during the pandemic,” while in the same amount of time one million people are being pushed into extreme poverty.
It noted that the increase in billionaire wealth has resulted from the injection of trillions of dollars into the financial system. On top of this, there has been a “profit bonanza” and the strengthening of monopoly control over the economy with estimates that in the US “expanding corporate profits are responsible for 60 percent of increases in inflation.”
The report continued Oxfam’s advocacy for a series of wealth taxes, noting that a progressive wealth tax starting at 2 percent for those with wealth above $5 million and rising to 5 percent for wealth above $1 billion could generate $2.52 trillion worldwide, enough to lift 2.3 billion people out of poverty and provide health care for 3.6 billion people in lower income countries.
Such calculations are valuable inasmuch as they demonstrate there are more than sufficient resources available to reconstruct the global economy on the basis of social equality. But the political perspective being presented, namely that reasonable measures can be advanced to convince the ruling elites to change course, is bankrupt.
In fact, it is refuted by some of the concluding comments in the report: “Oxfam is above all underlining that the rapid rise in billionaire wealth today and the cost-of-living crisis faced by billions of people are one and the same phenomenon. This is not something that is just happening on their watch but that has been deliberately crafted with their support.”
This makes clear the pursuit of a reformist perspective aimed at trying to convince capitalist governments, the servants of this oligarchy, to somehow change course is futile. The only viable and realistic policy is the political struggle by the working class in every country for the program of international socialism, so that the wealth produced by the labour of billions can be utilised for their social advancement.
Pay packages for US CEOs hit record for sixth year in a row
The pay packages of the top executives of the largest US corporations set another record in 2021, hitting a median value of $14.7 million. This was the tenth year in a row that median compensation increased and the sixth straight year of record setting packages for the chief executive officers (CEOs) of the top US companies.
According to a Wall Street Journal analysis published on Monday, total compensation of the CEOs of more than 400 companies on the S&P 500 rose by 12 percent in 2021. The Journal study also said that “most companies recorded annual shareholder returns of nearly 30 percent.”
Of the median total package value of $14.7 million, the analysis reports that $10.6 million consisted of equity awards, that is, non-cash compensation in the form of various company stock options. The balance of $4.1 million in the median CEO package was in the form of salaries, bonuses and other cash compensation.
In 2020, the median CEO package was worth $13.4 million, and the cash component was $3.1 million. In other words, while workers in nearly every US industry saw a reduction in real wages in 2021 due to an inflation rate of 7 percent, the cash portion of median CEO compensation increased by 32.3 percent.
As with everything related to the accumulation of vast sums of wealth in the upper echelons of American capitalist society, massive equity and cash compensation packages were awarded to a handful at the top end of the Journal rankings, and this exclusive club is growing. The analysis says, “Nine CEOs got pay packages worth at least $50 million last year—up from seven in 2020 and one in 2016.”
At the very top of the list is Peter M. Kern of Expedia Group who took in $296.25 million in 2021, an increase of a whopping 6,952 percent from 2020. Kern took over the online travel shopping company in April 2020 when the pandemic devastated the travel and tourism industries worldwide. Since the collapse of Expedia Group on Wall Street at that time, the company’s stock surged to more than double its pre-pandemic level.
As though it makes a difference, the Journal says that equity awards made up nearly all of Kern’s package, and these assets will not begin vesting until 2024 “at the earliest.” The Expedia Group CEO “isn’t expected to receive additional equity during his three-year employment contract,” according to a company spokesperson.
Second on the CEO pay package list is David Zaslav, the longtime CEO of Discovery Inc. and now the newly merged Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc., who received a total pay package of $246 million, an increase of 554 percent from the previous year. Of this amount, 82 percent, or $203 million, was in the form of an option grant “that depends on the stock price at least doubling from current levels before December 2027.”
However, the Journal reports that Zaslav received a total $30.5 million in cash compensation. The executive started his leadership of the new media conglomerate—the merger of AT&T’s WarnerMedia with Discovery—by announcing $3 billion in cuts that he says are needed to eliminate “overlapping” and to establish a company with “less layers.” Zaslav is fully aware that attacking the workforce, which has a median income that is 3,000 times smaller than the CEO’s, is the surest way to improve Wall Street performance and get him his $200 million.
Third on the list is Bill McDermott of ServiceNow, a software company that provides cloud computing services. McDermott’s 2021 package was worth $165 million, an increase of 560 percent over the previous year, and the cash portion is $3.57 million. McDermott has a $139.2 million option award that requires the company stock value to increase by half and that the company reach subscription revenue targets.
Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, the most valuable company on Wall Street at $2.5 trillion, is next with total package worth $98.73 million and cash compensation of $15 million. Cook, who had not received an equity award since 2011, received nearly $84 million in options in recognition of “his exceptional leadership and is commensurate with the size, performance and profitability Apple has achieved during his tenure.” Apple finished 2021 with $94.7 billion in profit.
Cook is followed by JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon with a total pay package of $84.43 million, of which $6.5 million is salary and other cash compensation. The Journal says that Dimon “must wait at least five years to exercise options the company valued at $52.6 million, nearly two-thirds of his $84.4 million in reported 2021 pay, and hold resulting shares at least another five years.”
As the leading voice of the US financial elite, the Wall Street Journal presents the increasingly grotesque accumulation of wealth at the top of society as the result of success for the winners among the capitalist class during “a tumultuous year that started with Covid-19 disrupting operations and sapping demand and ended with an economic rebound that left many US companies scrambling for workers and trying to stay ahead of rising inflation.”
While the Journal sees the equity portion of the lucrative compensation awards as some kind of “performance” requirement for the ultra-wealthy executives, the dirty little secret behind the 30 percent returns earned by the majority of the firms in 2021 is that the unprecedented rise on Wall Street has been fueled by the infusion of trillions of dollars into the markets by the US Federal Reserve.
While the Journal expresses a jubilant attitude toward the increasing pay package data, very little is said about the decline in the financial markets since the beginning of 2022, the increase in the inflation rate to 8.5 percent, the Federal Reserve interest rate policies or the volatility in the bond prices, all of which are indications of mounting instability of the entire financial system.
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