And now TWO gems from TMV’s favorite artist of verse, Michael Silverstein, aka Wall Street Poet:
The Measure Of George Bush
To take the measure of George Bush
Consider this hypocrisy,
He’s made a desert of Iraq
And calls the ruin democracy.
Today literally thousands of company executives who perform in a middling manner but have cozy relationships with their boards pull down comp packages of $50 million or more. Congress is now debating a measure that would give shareholders more power to oversee these shenanigans. Will if ultimately pass? Don’t bet on it…
Putting Limits On CEO Pay
A CEO, run of the mill
Can easily his pockets fill
With goodies from his comp’ny’s till
To the sweet tune of fifty mil.
So Congress now debates a bill
This overblown comp game would chill
With legislative stroke of quill
Raise the bar for ultra-frill
Come vote count time, is there the will
To pass a fat cat poison pill
Alas t’would be a tread uphill
In Beltway land, such will is nil.
Copyright 2007 Michael Silverstein
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.