[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

WSJ is better than this, promoting Marxist gobbledygook.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

I don't see how reporting on the state of corporate pension funds amounts to class warfare...

[Glenn]

promoting Marxist gobbledygook

It is promoting fiscal responsibility.

[ccmay]

WSJ is better than this, promoting Marxist gobbledygook.

Pointing out that these greedy executives are stealing companies from their owners is not Marxist.

I agree that something has to be done to strengthen shareholders' rights. It is ridiculous what is going on in corporate governance and executive compensation these days.

It's just like what happens in government, where you have a highly compensated professional managerial class in the civil service that is constantly expanding their numbers and constantly padding their already-generous benefits. People grumble, but somehow no reform ever takes place.

I'm certainly not in favor of the government setting limits on executive wages, and you can certainly make a case that the real superstars of corporate America earn their high salaries. Good for them. But taken as a whole, the small shareholders are being looted by armies of parasitic, mediocre MBA's.

-ccm

[jude24]

It's not Marxism to observe that the corporate power structure has deformed capitalism, to the detriment to shareholders and consumers.

[tempe]

What the article gets to is BOTTOM LINE FISCAL ACCOUNTING/REPOSABLITY.

Most pensions, including those that are moving to elimination or freezing are either fully funded or over funded for the most part for those who are rank and file employees.

Most corporations have different pension plans for rank and file members, others for white collar management and still others for UPPER MANAGEMENT. What the WSJ is saying is that the UPPER MANAGEMENT Pensions are underfunded significantly and are passed on to the FUTURE MANGEMENT to pay. And these future liabilities are MEGAONES

So this isn't MARXIST gobbledygook, but important thing to look at if one where were to invest in these companies using fundamental analysis....

[em2vn]

You object to the truth when it discloses the looting of corpoations on a high level? Who is a Maxist? You sound like a corporate communist stealing from the citizens under a different banner than the Reds.

[Grut]

WSJ is better than this, promoting Marxist gobbledygook.

In the end, excessive executive compensation is one of the things that killed Marxism; the party elite rewarded themselves with dachas, cars, wealth and privilege. It made the ordinary soviet citizen even more of a cynic about the system he lived under.

Who knows? Maybe America's executives can do the same for capitalism.