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BP's incoming chief executive, Bob Dudley, has reassured the City that the company will probably end up paying out less than the committed $20bn in compensation for those affected by the Gulf oil spill. The White House ordered the company to pay $20bn into a compensation fund over three and a half years, making it clear that further payments may be required. Although BP still does not know how much it will have to contribute, Dudley's comments that the $20bn already pledged should cover these claims reflect BP's growing confidence that it can emerge from April's Deepwater Horizon disaster in...

Within a week or so, if not sooner, we can expect the Dodd-Frank Act to become law....there remain hidden provisions that will have more impact than has been generally recognized. This column will focus on three: (1) the whistleblower bounty provisions of the act, which create unprecedented incentives; (2) the act's "clawback" provisions, which potentially affect all current and former "executive officers" of a listed company but that are expressed in vague language of uncertain scope; and (3) its approach to the extraterritorial application of the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws, where the act expressly reverses some aspects...

n Channel 1 interview PM says can't pay any price to free Schalit if it leads to the deaths of Israeli civilians. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu commented on recent diplomatic developments between Turkey and Israel in an interview with Channel 1 that aired Friday evening. Netanyahu rejected the notion that Israel would be pay any form of compensation or damages to Turkey for the nine Turkish citizens who were killed in the boarding of the Mavi Marmara as it sought to break the IDF blockade on Gaza.

Once all promised benefits are included, government employees at all levels—local, state, and federal—receive significantly greater total compensation than private-sector workers. A recent research paper released by the Center for State and Local Government Excellence argues that employees of state and local governments earn salaries and benefits significantly less than similar private-sector workers. But this study omits unfunded pension and retiree health benefits for public-sector workers. Once unfunded promises are included, state and local employees may receive significantly greater total compensation than private-sector workers. Study authors Keith Bender and John Heywood of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee analyzed differences in salaries...

JUNEAU, Alaska - Bristol Palin is hitting the speakers' circuit and will command between $15,000 and $30,000 for each appearance, Palin family attorney Thomas Van Flein said Monday.

Yesterday, the Senate passed an amendment offered by Senators Merkley (D-OR) and Klobuchar (D-MN) to S. 3217, the "Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010," that would prohibit the total amount of direct and indirect compensation paid to mortgage originators from varying based on the terms of a loan, and place a cap on income. The amendment, SA 3962, was issued after business hours on Tuesday night, fully knowing that NAMB would call on grassroots support to contact their Senators to oppose the amendment. Despite the NAMB "Call to Action" issued, the amendment was voted on and passed early Wednesday...

Every witness before a Senate subcommittee hearing last week on military compensation — all experts on service pay and benefits — called directly or indirectly for Congress to end its 12-year run of voting for annual military pay raises that exceed wage growth in the private sector. No witness suggested that future raises each January shouldn’t match annual wage gains for private sector workers as measured by the government Employment Cost Index. But with personnel costs soaring to sustain a quality all-volunteer force in its ninth year of war, lawmakers like Sen. James Webb (D-Va.), chairman of the Senate armed...

The Obama administration's personnel chief has assigned a task force to come up with "ironclad" data showing that feds do not earn far more than their private-sector counterparts. The move comes after organizations such as the libertarian Cato Institute and conservative lawmakers have criticized federal employees' pay, which they say is more than 50 percent higher on average than private-sector salaries. Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry told Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, at a Senate Appropriations Committee that such statements are "misinformation" and are not based on like comparisons.

Academic Supply & Demand Malcolm A. Kline, February 23, 2010 In the real world, businesses expand when profits do. In academia, colleges and universities, such as George Washington University, just expand. “In an effort to improve its widely criticized academic advising system, the University announced plans Friday to double the number of undergraduate advising staff in the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences; create an advising committee with representation from all undergraduate schools; and speed up the implementation of a degree auditing system,” Matt Rist reported in The GW Hatchet Online. “The changes will cost a total of $700,000, Executive...

FDIC Mulls Linking Fees To Bank Pay 01-07-2010 | Source: emii.com People & Companies in the News The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is considering linking fees paid by lenders to the agency for deposit insurance to the risk profile of compensation packages for executives, The Wall Street Journal reports. Banks with compensation structures viewed as less risky by the FDIC may be given a break on the fees they pay on deposit insurance. Banks that the FDIC considers to have pay structures that gives officials an incentive to put the company at more risk might be forced to pay...

The debate about reforms to the Colorado Public Employees' Retirement Association (PERA) has reached a new level after the PERA board’s recommendations known as the 2/2/2 plus plan. The plan is another temporary solution to potential long-term problems. Because of PERA’s inherent conflict of interest, it cannot provide recommendations based on new principles. Rather than focusing on the details of PERA’s plan, broad principles must be articulated by the Legislature as guidance for long-term changes. These principles are vital to maintain a competent state work force providing a desired set of services at reasonable cost to the taxpayer.

Barack Obama’s steady decline in the polls this week may mean the American people are tired of the president’s divisive campaign rhetoric after nearly a year into his administration. The Rasmussen Report’s daily tracking poll shows 53 percent of Americans disapprove of his performance in office. With an economy shaking, unemployment rising, and two wars draining our nation’s human and financial resources, Mr. Obama prefers to use the divisive language of the campaign trail in hopes of gaining public and political support for economic policies rather than to provide the leadership his supporters sorely hoped he possessed. He demonstrated this...

In public, President Obama is on a tear against Wall Street. In private, not so much Over the weekend, Obama attacked fat-cat investment bankers, telling "60 Minutes" he didn't become president to aid and abet Wall Street -- which, only a year after the financial meltdown and taxpayer bailout, is now scheduled to hand out tens of billions of dollars in bonuses to its bankers and traders. But the president's meeting yesterday with the CEOs of the largest banks was nearly a lovefest, I'm told by attendees. Yes, White House spinmeisters advertised the gathering as a chance for Obama to...

Even as CNBC, which seems to be unaware it is now under new ownership and can stop selling GE stock all day, every day (will Cramer be allowed to pump the worthless equities of competitor cable and satellite companies going forward? Inquiring minds want to know), could not stop praising the fabulous improvement in continuing claims which plummeted by a whopping 5,000 from 462k to 457k, one number that everyone ignored, is the explosion in Emergency Unemployment Compensation - yes, the same name for insurance benefits as they roll beyond their standard expiration horizon, and which the Administration is set...

Like many other doctors, I've been looking at my panel of patients and trying to decide whether a "public option" in health reforms will help them. Unfortunately, I can't think of a single patient where it will. As an internist, I have a varied practice, with patients ranging from rich to poor, from chronically ill to "worried well." On any given day, I see at least one quarter of cases (including Medicaid patients) without charge; one or two come in without insurance and pay me cash. Most of the time, I accept the patient's HMO or Medicare without looking closely...

This just looks bad. Really bad. The New York Times Company has been required to reveal startling management incompetence, an inability to correctly apply its own executive compensation scheme to the top two figures in the company, overpaying the bosses. Publicly-traded corporations like the Times must file a Form 8K within four days of various events, so the details of the screw-up are now on the record. The company filed the 8K following the end of trading yesterday. A summary of the substance is here.

CINCINNATI (AP) - The Cincinnati Bengals are suing 31 former players who filed workers compensation claims against the team in California. Unlike most other states, California allows for insurance payments to workers who can show they suffered trauma that compounded over a period of time.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 24, 2009 – The Veterans Affairs Department is taking steps to help veterans seeking compensation for post-traumatic stress disorder, VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki announced today. “The hidden wounds of war are being addressed vigorously and comprehensively by this administration as we move VA forward in its transformation to the 21st century,” Shinseki said. VA is publishing a proposed regulation today in the Federal Register to make it easier for a veteran to claim service connection for PTSD by reducing the evidence needed if the stressor claimed is related to fear of hostile military or terrorist activity. Comments...

'PAY Czar' Kenneth Feinberg's official government title is "special master for compensation." You'll be happy to know that he's really getting into the confiscatory spirit of his role. Asked by Reuters if his powers include reaching back and revoking bonuses awarded to financial-industry executives before his office was created this year, Feinberg asserted broad and binding authorities -- including the ability to "claw back" money already paid out. Regulations governing his office explicitly limit his jurisdiction over contracts signed before Feb. 11, 2009. But the fine print is no obstacle to President Obama's czars. "The statute provides these guideposts, but...

The NHS spent more than £800m settling legal claims last year as complaints of medical negligence against the service rose sharply. The surge in payouts is revealed in the NHS Litigation Authority's annual accounts which show that maternity services attract the highest legal costs. Clinical errors in delivering babies can result in lifelong damage and payments accordingly reflect the intensive medical care often needed for decades to come.