“[I don't think you understand] just how limited my role is,” said Kenneth Feinberg, special master of compensation for the Obama administration, at the Directorship Boardroom Leaders Forum at the Metropolitan Club in New York City Monday evening. Feinberg clarified his role, noting that “czar is a terrible label,” as he decides how to limit executive pay at TARP-recipient companies. “I’m trying to at least understand why the companies are claiming what they claim,” he started. “My primary objection is to pay the taxpayer back.”
Feinberg stressed that his role is “limited,” and that “Congress should not invite me to expand my juristiction.” Instead of focusing on the actual dollar amounts on the docket, Feinberg stressed the need to focus on the nature of the conditions imposed on pay practices. For example, base pay–there should be “no guarantees, no retention…” Instead, Feinberg emphasized the need to salarize stock–impose long-term stock, to prevent executives from selling off their shares prematurely.
“I do not claim to have the silver bullet [and] I appear to have sufficiently alienated both Main Street and Wall Street, [but] there hasn’t been one appeal,” he added, noting that since he took his post, there has not been an exodus by the C-suite from TARP-recipient companies