The "Most Heartless CEO In America" Earns More Ink -- In "The Nation", This Time

This particular story will resurface for so as long as the many (the ordinary rank and file) continue to be put out of work by the few; i.e., forever. . . .

Tonight the comparison of the all-too-real Ex-CEO Fred Hassan -- to the fictional Gordon Gekko character (in Oliver Stone's Wall Street) -- is open, unabashed and notorious. As it ought to be. Sunshine must be the antiseptic, here now.

So, this ink comes from the barrels of "The Nation" (and here was my original item on it):

". . . .In 2009," an executive report from the Institute for Policy Studies details, "the CEOs who slashed their payrolls the deepest took home 42 percent more compensation than the year's chief executive pay average for S&P 500 companies." Humorously (or maddeningly), the IPS report features some charming, Gekko-like characters. Fred Hassan of Schering-Plough, for example, is the "Golden Parachuter." IPS reports, "By far the highest-paid layoff leader, [Hassan] last year pocketed nearly $50 million. Hassan received a $33 million getaway gift when his firm merged with Merck, while 16,000 workers were receiving pink slips. Hassan's 2009 pay could have covered the average cost of these workers' jobless benefits for more than 10 weeks. . . ."

Actually, though, if the math were done correctly -- on the full value of Hassan's diamond-encrusted kiss-off payment -- those 16,000 would have full paychecks almost a year (or 43 weeks, give or take).