News Archives » Faith Responsible Investing
CEO Pay Goes Through the Roof October 23rd, 2013
The Guardian newspaper in London reported, “For the first time ever, the 10 highest-paid chief executives in the US received more than $100m in compensation last year, and two took home billion-dollar paychecks, according to a leading annual survey of executive pay.”
The studied showed that the top 10 CEOs in this year’s poll took home over $4.7bn between them, and “for the first time ever, none earned less than $100m.”
“I have never seen anything like that,” said Greg Ruel, GMI’s senior research consultant and author of the report. “Usually we have a few CEOs at the $100m-plus level but never the entire top 10.”
“Father Seamus Finn, a corporate governance expert at Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, said the numbers were ‘ridiculous’.”
“It’s an amazing number. Who knows how compensation committees come up with them?”
Finn, who has campaigned against what he sees as excessive remuneration at companies including Goldman Sachs, said boards often argued that they would lose talent unless they paid top management huge sums.
“But I’ve seen no evidence of that,” he said. “These huge pay deals are seldom linked to shareholder returns.”
Nearly all the outsized gains came from stock options and other share-related compensation. The top 10 made $3.3bn in 2012 on stock option profits and the vesting of restricted stock. Cash bonuses totalled $16.2m.
See the full article at The Guardian Newspaper
Close Expensive Offshore Tax Loopholes October 18th, 2013
Tax Justice Network is collecting organizational signatures for a letter in support of proposed legislation by Senator Carl Levin; the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act (S. 1533). This critical piece of legislation closes the most egregious offshore tax loopholes used by big multinationals and wealthy individuals. It would raise $220 billion in revenue – enough to cover the costs of two years of the sequester.
Their goal is to sign on 500 organizations. Now that a short-term deal has been struck to reopen the government and extend the debt limit, Congress will move to set up a conference committee on the budget. Closing tax loopholes needs to be on the table in these budget negotiations.
The deadline for the letter is COB Friday, October 25th. To sign on, please visit this link.
US Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Vulture Funds Case October 8th, 2013
The U.S. Supreme Court decided not to take the landmark debt case between Argentina and bondholders led by NML Capital, a hedge fund that buys the debt of countries in financial crisis. Argentina is expected to file a second petition in the coming months that the Supreme Court will review and decide again if it will hear the case. In June, Argentina filed a writ of certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court asking the court to overturn a ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals made last October. The ruling ordered Argentina to pay bondholders $1.33 billion based on the court’s interpretation of a pari passu, or parity clause.
“The faith community is saddened by the high court’s decision,” noted Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of Jubilee USA, a religious antipoverty organization. “Given the likelihood of Argentina filing again to the U.S. Supreme Court on this global poverty case, we’re praying upon another review the U.S. Supreme Court will take it.”
Click here to read more »
World’s Scientists Issue urgent Warning on Climate Change October 3rd, 2013
Late rains in Bangladesh stress crops and livestock.
Last week, the highly esteemed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its latest assessment of the science behind human-caused climate change. For the first time, the IPCC has offered guidance on the amount of CO2 that can still be put into the atmosphere and still stay below the temperature rise of 2 decrees Celsius: about 1 trillion tons more. The IPCC—which is made up of thousands of the world’s leading climate scientists from more than 120 countries—is now 95% certain that human activities are causing climate change. Previously, the scientists had been 90% certain.
In response to this report, Dr. Kevin Ahern, assistant professor of religious studies at Manhattan College, wrote The Moral Imperative to Act for Climate Justice. There, Dr. Ahern says that [t]he IPCC report draws attention to two facts that call Catholics and all people of good will to action, and highlights the work of the Coalition as an example of how Catholics are faithfully addressing climate change. It should be noted that the U.S. Catholic bishops used the third IPCC report as the basis for their call to action by the Catholic community when they wrote their 2001 statement, Global Climate Change: A Plea for Dialogue, Prudence and the Common Good.
The UK charity, Christian Aid, is urging governments to heed the warnings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). According to Independent Catholic News, Christian Aid’s Senior Climate Change Advisor, Dr. Alison Doig, warns that people in developing countries are already facing the grim reality of a changing climate [and says that t]his report demonstrates the urgent action needed to stop climate change in its tracks by committing to rapidly reducing global carbon emissions.”
Thanks to the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change for this information.
Mea Minima Culpa October 2nd, 2013
Rev. Seamus P. Finn, OMI has written a new blog on Huffington Post, called Mea Minima Culpa.
“There is more than a little irony in the long list of stories about the major CEOs of banks negotiating settlements with government regulators and agreeing to fines before going to court to settle…” Read more….
