Lehman E-Mail: Execs Mock Idea of Bonus Cut

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Overallloss of 5:36PM December 22, 2009

"Um, I fail to see what the 'scandal' here is". (from KMan of NY)
It is scandalous to award yourself and your buddies millions in bonuses when the entity for which you are responsible is on the rocks.
It may be in the genetic code of family Bush to reward failure - but that doesn't make it right.

A Lewis of CA 4:48PM October 12, 2008

As i read it, two people went to the firm's board to demand more compensation for themselves. Their boss was embarrassed. I wonder if he knew this was coming. The CEO understood the issue - these people wanted more for themselves.
Should the board of lehman brothers have been focused on paying these people more in June?
I understand the anger towards Wall Street and the Bushes, but there is nothing here.

Fred of CA 7:37PM October 11, 2008

Everybody is all jittery about the stock market, as they should be. What about the simple folks that that bought a Lehman Brothers bond? My investment counselor put me in a low risk investment that paid a 5.6% return. I was comfortable with that because after all, Lehmand has been around for 160 years and I was helping folks buy a house. I was all warm and fuzzy until Monday, after I had a hurricane that sent a tree into my house, my counselor called to inform me about the bankruptcy
I am a retired teacher and can't afford a hit like this and my money is gone. It is very small potatoes compared to the big investors but I have a voice. I am mad as hell and want my money back!
If Lehman goes to bankruptcy court, what are the chances that the bonds will have to be repaid?

Patricia Bresler of TX 12:10AM October 11, 2008

This is not "typical" bonus-banter. If it could be dismissed as bonus-banter, it would not have been forwarded up the chain by Walker, or have elicited his own defensive response. Connect the dots. In June, three months after the collapse of Bear Stearns, at a time when many insiders and outsiders (members of 'the public') knew of Lehman's vulnerability, and well before bonuses are generally struggled over, email from Vale (and apparently others) called attention to real problems, and proposed responses to impending financial, staffing and public perception issues. Etc.
The only 'idiotic ravings' are those on this blog that refuse to see the folly in the response of Lehman executive management. The writing was on the wall.

of NY 10:25AM October 08, 2008

Top management is not mocking the idea of a bonus cut. They are responding to a demand from Neuberger employees for more money for key people.

Mr. Francis Filishfu of MA 8:18AM October 08, 2008

Please... if you're going to claim to be responsible and honest, be responsible and honest. This is very misleading. The email string is typical "non-event" chatter within a large corporation. There is no mocking. There is no shocking. At most there is some mid-level manager making a feeble attempt at protecting the income of those below the EC, at the EC's expense. Just out of curiosity, when a firm fails to deliver for the customer/stockholders (like LEH and NB did), do you really think it's ALL the fault of the EC? At least report it factually, or don't give us the source data...it's not hard to read and decipher an email.

Paul of TX 8:26PM October 07, 2008

So let me get this straight.
Some N&B employees send an email to the Bd of Directors 6 months before bonuses are scheduled to be paid demanding better bonuses for them and none for senior management. And this is going on while LEH is up to its ears in crisis - a crisis which will end up putting the company into bankruptcy. And when a Bd member apologizes to other senior mgmt for N&B selfishly raising the issue as Rome burns - and Fuld complains the N&B employees are being greedy and not focused on the good of the company - you believe that FULD and WALKER come out looking bad?!?!
No wonder our country is in the crapper, when it is run by idiots like Wexman and their idiotic ravings are parroted by the morons in the media.

KMan of VA 3:24PM October 07, 2008