Now we might know exactly why Ronald McDonald might get axed by McDonald's Corp.(MCD). The company could use the money to pay it's CEO, Jim Skinner.

Dow Jones Newswires, via Chicago Breaking Business, reports that CEO Skinner received $17.6 million in compensation for 2009, representing a 30% increase over the previous year. The company is paying its highest executives handsomely for meeting specified performance goals. Who could argue with that? According to the report, "McDonald's payouts under its long-term incentive plan reached the maximum level possible based on the company 'substantially exceeding target performance' on several factors, including operating growth and stock returns."

McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) chief executive cry baby Jim Skinner told attendees at the National Restaurant Association's annual convention that the increasing popularity of state regulations requiring fast food chains to disclose calories counts are "redundant and flawed" and referred to the activists pushing for these measures as "CAVE people - Citizens Against Virtually Everything."

With all due respect to Mr. Skinner, he couldn't be more wrong or disingenuous.

Posting calorie counts on menus will give consumers greater and more convenient to nutritional information than they've ever had before. The reason McDonald's opposes these laws is that they know that if people knew what they were eating, many would eat less and save some of the money for the respirator.

The fact that Mr. Skinner is so worried about these laws that cities including New York have adopted demonstrates that they aren't redundant. If they were, there would be nothing to worry about!

It's a shame when the CEO of one of America's largest companies takes a stand against providing consumers with more information in a more convenient format.

McDonald's Corp. (NYSE:MCD), the world's largest restaurant chain, today said that it will be returning up to $10 billion to its shareholders over the next 18 to 24 months. CEO Jim Skinner also detailed some of the chain's plans during a presentation in New York this morning.

Skinner indicated that McDonald's was working to lower the level of trans fats in its french fries. Good grief -- it's hard to understand why the world's largest food-service company, with huge resources at its disposal, can't keep up with smaller chains that have already announced the elimination of trans fats from their menus within the next few years. Here's my advice to McDonald's: be an example and get this done to the benefit of all your customers. Also, design an entire marketing campaign around this effort and draw even more customers into your stores.

Skinner did say that the company plans to comply with New York City's law to limit the level of trans fats in restaurants if, or when, a city ordinance to that effect is passed there. Chicken salads and low-priced chicken snack wraps have played integral roles in the growth rate of McDonald's this year, Skinner said and according to him, the chain was working on a new premium chicken salad and versions of the chicken snack wrap. Eek -- don't fix what isn't broken!