Freddie Mac brass cash in as company tumbles


Executive compensation gone wild is nothing new, but it's worth looking at in the context of Freddie Mac, whose stock has tanked on a weak housing market and questions about the company's solvency. Rumors are swirling that the publicly traded quasi-semi-governmental agency will seek some kind of government bailout.

Fortune's Colin Barr examined the company's latest proxy statement and found some disturbing trends in management compensation: for 2007, CEO Richard Syron took home a $1.2 million salary, a $3.45 million cash bonus, and stock awards and misc. other of $10.6 million. That was up 24% from a year ago.

If Freddie decides to seek public funds, it will look laughably hypocritical. When it comes to CEO pay, this is a company that wants to operate like a private business but, when the going gets rough, it pulls the federal trump card. That's crap.

Think about it: any bailout will be indirectly supporting that eight-figure compensation. I think taxpayers deserve better than that and, before we contribute a penny or guarantee anything, Mr. Syron should take a large pay cut and invest his own money in any preferred/secondary offering the company pursues. Think that'll happen? One can dream ...

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Symbol Lookup
IndexesChangePrice
DJIA-126.2412,764.22
NASDAQ-25.732,901.50
S&P 500-11.761,340.19

Last updated: February 10, 2012: 11:12 AM

Hot Stocks

General Electric

18.87-0.26(-1.36)

Alcoa

10.365-0.275(-2.58)

Apple Inc

495.78+2.61(+0.53)

Google Inc 'A'

607.07-4.39(-0.72)

Bank of America

8.075-0.105(-1.28)

Wal-Mart Stores

61.47-0.49(-0.79)

Exxon Mobil Corp

83.86-1.02(-1.20)

Ford

12.50-0.19(-1.50)

Citigroup

33.07-0.59(-1.75)

IBM

191.60-1.53(-0.79)

Yahoo

16.25+0.25(+1.56)

Starbucks

48.60-0.60(-1.22)

Microsoft

30.63-0.14(-0.46)

Home Depot

45.15-0.12(-0.27)

DailyFinance Headlines

Benzinga Headlines

TheFlyOnTheWall.com Headlines

BioHealth Investor Headlines

WalletPop Headlines

DailyFinance BlackBerry App

My Portfolios

Track your stocks here!

Find out why more people track their portfolios on AOL Money & Finance then anywhere else.

BloggingStocks Partners

More from AOL Money & Finance

BioHealth Investor Headlines

Page Loaded in 1328890337666 ms.