Kevin Colby: News, culture, political blog

Some interesting articles from Clark Howard’s website:

Barron’s identifies financially troubled banks

CLARKONOMICS: Is your bank financially healthy? A new analysis from Barron’s takes a hard look at the 13 largest banks in the United States and has identified seven that are effectively insolvent.  Read the full story.

New unemployment stats obscure larger jobless measure

CLARKONOMICS: The official unemployment figure for February now sits at 8.1%; that means roughly 1 in 12 Americans are without work. And it’s likely to rise to somewhere between 10% and 12% before this whole recession is through.   Read the full story.

Another breach of credit card numbers?

A recent report in USA Today suggested that we’re now in the midst of a third major breach of credit card numbers that could affect both Visa and MasterCard holders.   Read the full story.

Federal TALF program hopes to unlock the credit market

The federal government is quietly launching a $1 trillion program that it hopes will get the credit market moving, according to The Wall Street Journal.  Read the full story.

Some interesting articles from Clark Howard’s website:

Ponzi schemes infiltrate the commodities trading market

RIP-OFF ALERT: There’s a new warning from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission about an infiltration of Ponzi schemes that they’re now seeing.  Read the full story.

Cost to rent vs. buy a home is key metric for housing recovery

CLARKONOMICS: There’s frightful news about housing everywhere you turn. Existing home sales have dropped to a 12-year low. Meanwhile, almost half of all homes sold across America in January were foreclosures. That’s a startling statistic.   Read the full story.

More customer no service to come from zombie banks

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has been testifying about the bank bailout and the threat of galloping inflation. He’s also been denying any further nationalization of our financial institutions.   Read the full story.

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Barack Obama has decided that it’s a good idea to put a $500,000 salary cap on executive’s who work for the bailout banks.

This is just the beginning people.

Obama said, “In order to restore our financial system, we’ve got to restore trust. And in order to restore trust, we’ve got to make certain that taxpayer funds are not subsidizing excessive compensation packages on Wall Street.” So there you go. We have a figure to judge who is receiving excessive compensation, according to the government.  Check out this article from the UK, Obama’s bank error:  It is boards that should determine pay not governments.

Let’s say that congress passes this law which caps executive compensation at $500,000 a year for any company receiving bailout funds.  Now these companies are in trouble. They have shareholders and employees who are looking to corporate leadership to save their jobs and their investments by turning their companies around and putting them on a path to profitability. The chief executives of these companies are going to have to be experienced and knowledgeable innovators. They will be making decisions that are difficult to the extreme. People with these executive skills are in high demand. There are headhunting firms out there who earn hundreds of thousands of dollars from just one company find just the right person with the right combination of experience and executive talent to lead.  People with this talent don’t go cheap … and they certainly don’t go for $500,000 a year.

Some interesting articles to read: