Article: Stirling Proposal for Corporate Reform

Stirling Proposal for Corporate Reform Since Congress has now worked out a "deal" to fund the bailout of Wall Street, in spite of the fact that the overwhelming majority of Americans are opposed to the very idea of it, it is a very good time to look at a basic reform of the compensation levels of executives in publicly traded corporations. In the last couple of decades the American people have seen a very large part of the American industrial base moved offshore by American corporate leaders. We have see corporate executive compensation levels rise to truly insane levels. We have seen the "experts" on Wall Street create a Quadrillion dollar derivatives market out of thin air and are now being told that we, the taxpayers who actually work for our money and pay our too high taxes, are going to have to bail out Wall Street for $750 billion to solve the "toxic loan problem". It is time that the public get something in return for this massive ripoff of its tax dollars. It is time for a reform of the American corporate environment that has allowed our great nation to move to the edge of another Great Depression. The bailout bill has over one hundred pages in its latest form. Lets add one more page with the following details: (1) No pay or any form of compensation, including stock options, for any officer or employee of any publicly traded corporation incorporated in the United States of America, including all banking and financial and insurance corporations, shall exceed $500,000 per year. Corporations not incorporated in the United States, but doing business in the United States, shall be included in these provisions for any corporate employee or officer residing in the United States for over 10 days per year. (2) For every 10,000 new full time jobs in America, employing American citizens at wages of at least $25,000 in actual wages paid per year, created by a corporation, the corporate employee top compensation level allowed for that corporation, under this Act, shall be raised by $50,000 per year. (3) Any person violating this Act, who is found guilty by a court of law, shall serve no less than 10 years in a federal prison. Any corporation found guilty of violating this act shall be fined no less than twenty times the amount paid in compensation in excess of that allowed by this Act. No offshore corporations, trusts, or other legal entities may be used to circumvent the provisions of this Act