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2009-03-19 Home Front Economy

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Posted by tu3031 2009-03-19 10:44|| || Front Page|| [4 views ] Top

#1 Fannie Mae plans to pay retention bonuses of at least $1 million...

Does anyone believe it makes any difference whether these clowns are retained? TVA has paid bonuses for years--I don't recall that they were specifically called retention bonuses--just bonuses. Maybe they should be called "boneuses" since we all end up getting boned by the govmint.

Posted by JohnQC 2009-03-19 12:33|| 2009-03-19 12:33|| Front Page Top

#2 Notice they didn't lose as much as AIG so they get paid less bonus money. They are doing to good a job in reversing the bleeding - why pay a retention bonus. What Fanny and Freddie should be doing is hiring those guys from AIG that quit once they got their bonus. Then they could turn them into the direction Barney Frank prefers - from the rear.

Posted by Jack is Back!">Jack is Back! 2009-03-19 12:37|| 2009-03-19 12:37|| Front Page Top

#3 I don't know the details of the Fannie setup.

But generally in industry the way retention bonuses work is that you accept a *lower then normal* salary base in exchange for a bonus at the end of the retention period. That incents you to stay, since the salary + bonus are generally a bit higher than you would make in straight salary elsewhere. It also benefits the organization, which avoids the hidden costs of a new employee search and training or integrating a new hire.

Keep in mind too that the FMs were run by ex-Clintonites at the top who, together with Congress, demanded that the pursestrings be opened and that risk be ignored. Quite likely some of those getting these bonuses a) earned them by staying while working during a turbulent, tense time and b) unlike the political appointees at the top, did their best to make the stupid decisions imposed politically work out as best as could be managed.

Posted by lotp 2009-03-19 15:12|| 2009-03-19 15:12|| Front Page Top

#4 I can't argue with performance bonuses - sort of like piecework pay for manual labor - but retention bonuses bother me. If they are such high-value (to you) employees, pay them. If not, let them go to where they are that valued. The track record of a lot of these people clearly shows they were NOT such high value employees after all.
That said, I do hope FM doesn't fold up - darling daughter is currently trying to stimulate the economy by buying a house with FM 'money' and marginal income (with a somewhat higher income co-signer.)

Posted by Glenmore">Glenmore 2009-03-19 20:09|| 2009-03-19 20:09|| Front Page Top

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