that s the problem that society has to confront. you know, franklin roosevelt said at one point he didn t think anybody in the united states should make more than $100,000. now, that didn t work then, but the disparities were not nearly as great in earlier times in our history. so this is a big thing for us to start to talk about. are we seeing that top 1% or in this case one-tenth,ç one hundredth of 1% pull away from the society. and what does that do to our country. tim, do you see these pay levels as just the operations of a free market or rewards to a free market or like many do you think the ceo pay is a rigged system of self-dealing insiders who work to ratchet their pay up whether times or performance is good or mediocre. first of all, i want to note that jonathan was sort of praising t.a.r.p. for giving government a lever with which to control business, and that s
themselves with huge budget tkeuf sits. rhode island was one of them but manages to turn it around. they were more than $60 million in the red with 12% unemployment and a shaky financial future. the governor battled with politicians and healthcare provide tkers to cut costs. the workforce was reduced. pensions and benefits were trimmed too, bringing them in line with the private sector. the governor saying, it s a matter of fairness. when you look at the pay levels, the health benefits, the pension benefits, they are far in excess of what most of the taxpayers out there have, so it s trying to bring those into alignment. reporter: well state aid was also cut to local municipalities and they had to sacrifice too. aging police cars weren t replaced. fewer cops and firefighters on the job. a public pool never opened for the summer. it might be good news that the governor and general
and, shep, this new round of bonuses totaling 100 million is for just one division of the company, by the way, the one that took the risky financial bets that sank a.i.g. shepard: the white house s special master on executive pay says there is not much he can do about this at all. we will just call him the pay czar. ken feinberg says these bonuses were locked in, as you mentioned, under employment contracts written before the government took over a.i.g. in 2008, before the congress even approved the tarp and its pay restrictions. they are legally binding contracts. but, feinberg says he has the power over future compensation at a.i.g. and will take into account these bonuses in setting new pay levels at the company. am i angry about this? absolutely. will i take all of these retention payments into account in my prospective compensation decisions for 2010? absolutely. feinberg also says he has