Jamie Dimon's Move Cost How Much?

Yesterday morning (Friday, April 8), I was doing my regular surfing of news sites, after once again not finding any jobs in my daily job search when I came across this story from Reuters on the pay that JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon received for 2010. The thing that caught my eye most of all however was not the $20.8M in total compensation. Nor was it the $5M cash bonus on top of the $1M cash salary for the year. No, the items that caught my eye were at the bottom of the article on the "perks" Dimon received:

His 2010 compensation also included $579,624 worth of perks, including $421,458 of "moving expenses," $95,293 to use company aircraft and $45,730 for personal automobile use. Most of the rest went toward home security.

Like many Americans who have had trouble selling their homes, Dimon did too. The moving expenses relate to the sale in 2010 of Dimon's Chicago-area home, in which he had lived while heading Bank One Corp that was sold to JPMorgan in 2004.

Good News and Bad News on the Economy and Other Things

Let's see how broadly I can stretch the definition of "Good News" today. The weekly report of Initial Unemployment Claims was the lowest it has been since May of 2008:

There were 368,000 initial jobless claims filed in the week ended Feb. 26, the Labor Department said Thursday. That was down 20,000 from the week before, and the lowest since May 2008.

Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had expected initial claims to rise to 400,000 in the latest report.

The 4-week moving average of initial claims, which aims to smooth out volatility, also improved, falling to 388,500 from the previous week's revised average of 401,250. That's the lowest since July 2008.

Of course, this is before any of the threatened lay-offs due to federal and state budget cuts and the overall official unemployment rate is still stuck at 9% or higher so there are still roughly 15 million unemployed and 25 to 30 million un and underemployed.

Another bit of information in today's news that can be considered "good" news is from today's (Thursday March 3) NY Times is how the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Justice Department, Postal Inspectors, and 11 state Attorneys General had investigated, fined, and seized assets of firms preying on the unemployed:

The investigation focused on businesses that lured financially unsophisticated retirees and the unemployed with opportunities to start businesses or gain access to job listings, often with little personal effort but hefty upfront fees, the authorities said.

...snip...

The commission announced more than 90 civil actions, including three lawsuits against companies the agency said defrauded consumers of more than $49.5 million. The F.T.C. said it had obtained judgments and levied fines totaling $14.6 million in six other cases.

The Justice Department said it had taken 48 criminal actions, most in conjunction with the Postal Inspection Service. In 36 criminal cases presented Wednesday, officials said there were 16 guilty pleas, three convictions and seven cease-and-desist orders. Nineteen sentences handed down to defendants total more than 56 years.

Now for the bad news.

Banker Pay Is Pretty Good - The Price of Destroying the Economy

A few months ago, I (only half facetiously) offered my services to BP as CEO after I had read about and watched bits of Tony Hawyard's testimony before Congress on how he was like Sgt Schultz (I know nothing, nothing!), figuring I could do at least as good a job as Hayward for a lot less money. Win-win all the way around for everyone!

The Sgt Schultz defense seems to be fairly common among CEOs and upper management for many companies, even though they are paid to be aware of what is going on. I would imagine that there are many of us among the millions of long term un and underemployed who could do the jobs of CEOs and so-called Masters of the Universe and be not only more honest in our dealings with others but also more empathetic for those who are struggling.

Instead, we get to see Lloyd Blankfein's salary and other compensation jump again in 2010:

The firm’s board granted restricted stock valued at $12.6 million to Mr. Blankfein and other senior executives, including Gary D. Cohn, the firm’s president. The board also approved a new annual base salary of $2 million for its chief executive, up from $600,000. Mr. Cohn and others will see their base salaries increase to $1.85 million, according to the filing on Friday.

With his previous salary of $600,000, Mr. Blankfein’s 2010 compensation comes to $13.2 million. Senior executives often receive part of their compensation in cash, but Goldman did not release details on this component of Mr. Blankfein’s compensation.

The Economy for 2011 Still Screwed - Or Is It?

When I was surfing through the news this morning I came across this article in the NY Times from Sewell Chan about economists thinking the economy will be growing during 2011:

WASHINGTON — Eighteen months after the recession officially ended, the government’s latest measures to bolster the economy have led many forecasters and policy makers to express new optimism that the recovery will gain substantial momentum in 2011.

Economists in universities and on Wall Street have raised their growth projections for next year. Retail sales, industrial production and factory orders are on the upswing, and new claims for unemployment benefits are trending downward.

Despite persistently high unemployment, consumer confidence is improving. Large corporations are reporting healthy profits, and the Dow Jones industrial average reached a two-year high this week.

Given how often economists make wrong predictions and are then "surprised," my first inclination was to conclude that things will not only not get better but are likely to get worse.