Conflict Of What?

Oh, don't be silly. Can't happen here. Look at Verizon. NYTimes (04.10.06):

"Shareholders watched their stock fall 26 percent, bondholders lost value as credit agencies downgraded the company's debt and pensions for 50,000 managers were frozen at year-end. When Verizon closed the books last year, it reported an earnings decline of 5.5 percent." Outside Advice on Boss's Pay May Not Be So Independent

For turning in a year like that, Ivan G. Seidenberg, Verizon's CEO, "received $19.4 million in salary, bonus, restricted stock and other compensation, 48 percent more than in the previous year." Verizon's board of directors decided that Ivan "earned his pay last year as the company exceeded 'challenging' performance benchmarks". Hmmm. Let's see if we have this straight: you've exceeded challenging benchmarks when the company you're running experiences a simultaneous decline in stock value, bond value and earnings over a one-year period. The Board also asserted that Ivan's new raise "was competitive with that of other companies in Verizon's industry", and "was devised with the help of an 'outside consultant' who reports to the committee." Aha!! The outside consultant gambit, who the article identified as "Hewitt Associates of Lincolnshire, Ill., a provider of employee benefits management and consulting services with $2.8 billion in revenue last year." And thus, the crux of the matter: "Verizon is one of Hewitt's biggest customers in the far more profitable businesses of running the company's employee benefit plans, providing actuarial services to its pension plans and advising it on human resources management." "According to a former executive of the firm who declined to be identified out of concern about affecting his business, Hewitt has received more than half a billion dollars in revenue from Verizon and its predecessor companies since 1997." Conflict of interest? Of course not. A Verizon representative said that the company has "'always ensured there have been no conflicts of interest.'" Alrighty then. There you have it. Move along, please.