Blog de Paul Jorion

3 réponses à “L’actualité de la crise : Faute de décisions, les réunions se multiplient, par François Leclerc”

1. 

   Moi

   19 février 2009

   Concernant UBS, aux dernières nouvelles ils refuseraient de donner la liste demandée des clients américains. Ils ont déjà des procès sur le dos à cause la liste restreinte déjà donnée et là ils entament un bras de fer avec l’administration US. Ils sont un peu entre l’enclume et le marteau là. Sale temps pour les banquiers.

2. 

   Paul Jorion

   20 février 2009

   C’est beaucoup trop long pour que je traduise mais à l’intention de ceux d’entre vous qui lisent l’anglais, un article de l’agence Bloomberg sur les perks = privilèges que conservent les banquiers qui se sont fait vider récemment pour incompétence flagrante. Comme leurs anciennes banques bénéficient aujourd’hui des largesses du contribuable, c’est bien celui-ci qui finance cette munificence.

   Citi, Merrill Ex-CEOs Leave Messes and Keep Perks
   Commentary by Ann Woolner

   Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) — My guess is that a large number of out-of-work Americans wouldn’t mind having their own office with secretarial help, even if they have no actual job to do there.

   For those in foreclosure, those laid-off, they could get some rest out of the cold in a comfortable office with a private restroom and maybe a view of Manhattan. Perhaps they could venture to the executive dining room for some nourishment. Chateaubriand, maybe.
   Those facing loss of home or job because of the wrecked economy are among the millions of taxpayers footing the bill for these perks, at least indirectly.

   The funny part is that the people who get to enjoy the free office space, the assistant, maybe access to a corporate jet, are among those who helped wreck the economy for the rest of us.

   In this way, those suffering from the wreckage make a comfortable life more comfortable for the wreckers.

   Citigroup, which took a $52 billion bailout after posting record losses last year, gave departing Chairman Sanford Weill a 10-year “consulting” contract when he retired in 2006, complete with office, staff and use of corporate jets.

   Citigroup granted former co-CEO John Reed, who hasn’t worked there for nine years, an office and secretary for life, if he wants them.

   And, just because Citigroup’s subprime losses of almost $10 billion pushed CEO Charles Prince out the door in 2007, it doesn’t mean he was left out in the cold. He gets office space, an assistant and a car and driver for five years.

   Continuing Privileges

   Back in the old days, not long ago, no one thought twice about financial firms granting departing chief executives continuing privileges. To keep the ex-execs loyal, they wrote them into contracts as a matter of course.

   That something so routine now seems obscene measures how far the mighty have fallen along with so many ordinary Americans.

   As they struggle to stay in their homes and out of bankruptcy, taxpayers aren’t exactly thrilled to be forking over hundreds of billions of dollars for bank bailouts and economic stimuli. They blame their own fiscal fragility and the massive bailouts on executives who still maintain multiple homes.

   Now it turns out the captains of commerce also have offices where they don’t actually have to work, and staff who presumably have little to do.

   Wretched Performance

   Merrill Lynch, whose wretched performance pushed it into Bank of America’s arms, has been giving out offices and staff to at least four ex-CEOs. This includes Stanley O’Neal, who exited with a $160 million package in 2007 after near-record losses, all the way back to William Schreyer, who left Merrill 16 years ago.

   Bank of America, which no doubt regrets its embrace of Merrill after even more rotten returns in December, might have to also make room for John Thain in, no doubt, a less elegantly furnished office than he had at Merrill.

   It’s probably too late for banks, like other corporations, to force a so-called clawback of goodies from executives who signed exit contracts long ago. So, how about a begback?
   Directors can’t demand that the ex-execs show a little sensitivity to changed circumstances, but they can ask for it. And they just might be able to shame them into it.
   Consider Weill.

   On the same day, Feb. 1, that the New York Post reported that the former Citibank CEO had flown his family to Mexico in a Citigroup jet in December for a vacation, he announced he was giving up that perk.

   ‘Unprecedented Circumstances’

   “In light of the unprecedented circumstances that Citi finds itself in,” Weill would no longer engage a company jet for personal use, his assistant at Citigroup said in an e-mail.
   Yes, he still has an assistant. But Weill decided back in August that he would be giving up his 10-year consulting gig, perks included, in April.

   His eventual successor, CEO Vikram Pandit, got the message, too, however belatedly. After a flogging for ordering a new corporate jet, he announced last week he was canceling the aircraft and would accept an annual salary of $1.

   “We did not adjust quickly enough to this new work,” he told a U.S. House committee last week. But now, “I get the new reality.”

   So what about the rest of the ex-CEOs? True, their perks wouldn’t total enough to make even a dip in the ocean of federal bailout funds.

   But it might give some solace to those who lost their jobs because some of these still-coddled men botched theirs.

   To contact the writer of this column: Ann Woolner in Atlanta at awoolner@bloomberg.net.
   Last Updated: February 18, 2009 00:01 EST

3. 

   JJJ

   20 février 2009

   Ces messieurs ont sans doute une si haute opinion d’eux-mêmes qu’ils trouvent légitime de prélever leur tribut ad vitam. On ne sait ce qui est le plus choquant : leur monstrueuse vulgarité ou leur absence totale de lucidité.