BLESSED BE EXECUTIVE GREED

I wrote on 3 April about executive greed at the not-for-profit retirement fund TIAA-CREF. Roger Ferguson, the CEO at TIAA-CREF for the past year, takes $11,200,000 of retired teachers' savings as his annual pay. This amount includes $5,000,000 (from his first year on the job) as "performance compensation." I complained to Mr. Ferguson that his greed was offensive and thoroughly immoral.

TIAA-CREF has a new motto, by the way: "Financial Services for the Greater Good."

Today I received an answer to my letter from Dan Lindner, the Senior Customer Resolution Manager. (I am the customer to be "resolved," I assume.)

Mr. Lindner doesn't apologise for Roger Ferguson's greed. Rather, he tells me that "IN LIGHT OF OVERALL MARKET CONDITIONS, MR. FERGUSON HAS VOLUNTARILY AGREED TO FOREGO 25 PERCENT OF THE PERFORMANCE COMPENSATION TO WHICH HE IS ENTITLED IN HIS EMPLOYMENT AGREEMENT FOR 2008." That's 25 percent of $5,000,000, which leaves him--poor man!--with only $3,750,000 of his "performance compensation," and another $6,2000,000 untouched to go along with that. I am supposed to be impressed, I think, with Mr. Ferguson's generosity.

I am not impressed with his generosity. Rather, I am disgusted at his greed. He is still taking nearly $10,000,000 this year of retired teachers' savings. Most of the retired teachers who have invested in TIAA-CREF earned no more that the $1,250,000 which Mr. Ferguson has "agreed to forego" in their entire working lives! Even if he gave back all of his "performance compensation," that wouldn't be enough. He is a greedy bastard, an offensive and thoroughly immoral man.

Greedy people like Roger Ferguson make it all the more obvious that the world's wealth needs to be redistributed by force of law. Greedy people aren't generous; we can't depend on them to be socially responsible or decent.

My letter from Mr. Lindner advises that his communication with me "is protected by law," and that "any disclosure, copying, or distribution of this message, or the taking of any action based on it, is strictly prohibited."