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Brass get bonsues. Consumers lose jobs, go bankrupt: By LINDA LEATHERDALE March 24 — Sadly, this is just another sign of these disgusting times. One of Canada's worst managed companies - Nortel Networks, now in bankruptcy protection - is paying out $7.3 million in executive bonuses so key personnel won't leave, while senior brass already walked away with fortunes as the ship went down. And on Main Street, struggling families suffering job losses are filing for EI benefits or declaring personal bankuptcy at a rapid pace. According to latest statistics released today, more than 117,000 Canadians filed for bankruptcy in the 12-month period ending January 2009 - up 15.8% from a year ago. In January alone, more than 10,000 threw in the towel, reports the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy Canada, up 2.9% from December. In the same month, the number of Canadians filing for employment insurance (EI) benefits jumped above the 500,000 mark, while in February the number jumped another 23% from a year ago. Experts will argue Canada's unemployment rate, now a 7.7%, up almost 2% from a year ago, is still quite low. But, what about the chronically unemployed who haven't been counted for years since the "re-engineering days" of the Nasty Nineties, when Freedom 55 became a boot out the corporate door? Another sign - as socialism reigns on Bay Street and brutal capitalism thrives on Main Street - is the number of businesses going under. In the first month of this year, another 567 businesses pulled the plug and filed insolvency papers - up 2.5% from December. Though overall the number slipped in Ontario, manufacturing bankruptcies were up 24%. Meanwhile, the anger over excessive executive pay and fat-cat bonuses is sparking riots. Today, on Capitol Hill in Washington, loud rioters interrupted hearings by the House financial services committee into the US$165-million bonuses paid to top AIG brass, after $173 billion of taxpayers' money was pumped into the ailing insurer in four separate bailouts. During today's hearings, US. treasury secretary Timothy Geithner insisted he only learned details of the fat-cat bonus payouts at the eleventh hour and he was powerless to stop them. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke testified any effort by the U.S. government to stop the bonuses would have led to claims for punitive damages and caused a doubling of the bailout costs. Late last night, Andrew Cuomo, New York state's attorney general revealed nine of the top 10 bonus recipients have agreed to pay back the money. But what about Nortel brass? While thousands of Nortel employees are being denied severance pay, courts in Canada and the U.S. granted the company the right to pay out US$7.3 million three unnamed executives in Canada and five in the U.S. Earlier this month, another 26 employees were approved to receive a portion of US$23 million program designed to retain 92 senior managers. "You need to keep the good people to make sure this restructuring is successful in order to preserve as many jobs as you can and in order to preserve as much value as you can in this enterprise," said Nortel's chief counsel at bankruptcy proceedings in Toronto last week. To me, this stinks to high heaven. Where's the fairness?
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