No Crisis for Chief Execs

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
The chief executive officers of the firms most responsible for causing the current mortgage market crisis collected hundreds of millions of dollars in pay last year, reveals the AFL-CIO's 2008 Executive PayWatch. "When CEOs are paid obscene amounts to make bad decisions," said AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka, "it hurts average Americans who hold mortgages, have bank accounts and who are invested, such as through their pensions."  Launched Monday morning, this year's edition of PayWatch tracks trends in CEO pay, takes a close look at several of the major players in the subprime mortgage debacle, and shows the link between CEO pay and the mortgage crisis. It also includes an updated CEO Pay database for Standard and Poor's Super 1500 corporations.