More Than You Know, Or Would Believe...

...is how much money the CEO of Home Depot gets.
Would you believe a salary higher than the President, Vice President, Cabinet (all of it,) the U. S. Senate (all of it,) and the U. S. Supreme Court (all of it,) combined?

You wouldn't?

Really?Well, you'd be wrong.
The CEO of Home Depot, Robert Nardelli, makes $38 million a year in SALARY ALONE. Not only that, but he is guaranteed a full pension - calculated not only off his salary, but off his salary AS IF HE'D EARNED BONUSES EVEN IF HE DIDN'T, despite the fact that since he took over in 2000, Home Depot stock has dropped 12 percent.

Don't worry, ExxonMobil has it worse - after the revelation was made of how much former CEO Lee Raymond took home when he retired, the stockholders staged a revolt and at this point can deny election of any further directors of the corporation by a simple majority vote, which the board cannot block. Not only that, but one of the larger shareholders called upon the board in an open shareholder meeting to "never again grant such excessive compensation to an Exxon executive."

Yeah.

Did I mention that Comcast's cable rates are rising at twice the rate of inflation? Thought I should.

Comcast is being reviewed for removal from the Domini 400 Social Index, a prestigious list of socially responsible companies, on whose recommendations many, many mutual funds are guided to new investments. Kiss your stock price goodbye when that happens, Comcast. I wish you well of it.

At least Home Depot didn't have those kind of shareholder issues. I mean, when the shareholders tried to revolt at the last shareholder meeting, CEO Robert Nardelli - you know, the guy who makes more than the entire U. S. government - basically told the shareholders to STFU and closed the meeting after only 30 minutes.

Must be nice. I mean, most corporate officers are at least marginally accountable to their stockholders.

I knew there was a reason I shop at Lowe's.