During McKinnell's tenure, 1999 to 2006, Pfizer's per share price went
from roughly $50 to $30 (adjusted for stock splits). With about seven
billion shares in existence, this reflects a loss in value for Pfizer
of $140 billion under McKinnell's leadership.
A board of
directors exists to look after the interests of these shareholders. But
gosh, what do you know -- a glance at the Pfizer board shows that the
chairman was... Henry A. McKinnell!
The Pfizer board of
directors is made up of 15 members. It includes such luminaries as Ruth
Simmons, president of Brown University; Stanley Ikenberry, former
president of the University of Illinois; Nobel Prize winner (medicine)
Michael S. Brown; Dennis A. Ausiello, former head of Massachusetts
General Hospital; Constance Horner, former head of the U.S. Civil Rights
commission; Dana G. Mead, chairman of the board of directors of the
company that runs the Massachusetts Institute of Technology -- plus
seven venal corporate hacks from the nation's business sector (not
including McKinnell himself): M. Anthony Burns (Ryder Trucks); Robert
Burt (FMC Chemicals); W. Don Cornwell (Granite Broadcasting and Avon
Products); Jeffrey Kindler (Pfizer); George A. Lorch (Armstrong
Floors); William C. Steere (Pfizer), and William Howell (JC Penny).
Now, at some point, the Executive Compensation Committee of this board
(composed of four directors) recommended McKinnell's pay package,
including terms of severance, in case things didn't work out.
Presumably, the committee then presented their recommendations to the
full board for a vote. Aside from the massive clumps of deferred
compensation ($77.9 million) and pension benefits ($82.3 million), the
package included $12 million in pure severance pay, vested stock grants
($5.8 million), and a plain vanilla annual bonus of $2.15 million.
It is amusing that a CEO who made $140 billion worth of stock value
evaporate during his tenure would be regarded as worthy of a
performance bonus. But the sweetest little sugar plums in the stocking
are the $576,573 worth of medical and dental coverage (so Hank doesn't
have to wait in some emergency room with a bunch of illegal Mexican
sheet-rockers), and finally the $305,644 that McKinnell will get for
paid vacation days he didn't take.
What I'd like to know is
how come Pfizer's directors are not sitting down right now with
investigators from the Securities and Exchange commission, or the U.S.
Attorney's office, or the New York state Attorney General's office and
answering some questions as to how they acquiesced in the looting of
this corporation. Surely, there are only two ways that the directors'
behavior can be explained: as either the wildest sort of fiduciary
failure or flat out venality -- which would naturally lead to either
civil trials or criminal prosecutions.
The case of Ruth
Simmons is especially interesting. The President of Brown University
has been campaigning tirelessly for reparations for the descendants of
American slaves. Perhaps before long she will meet up with somebody
campaigning for reparations for Pfizer shareholders, and for American
citizens who are charged unconscionable prices for pharmaceutical
products.
Somewhere in this nation, perhaps on a
midwestern university campus, or toiling on the receiving dock of a
Best Buy store, there are sharp young people who are not failing to
notice the stupendous economic injustice that saturates the system as
it is currently running. These young people may emerge as the Dantons,
Robespierres, and Saint-Justs of the 21st century. It's not a happy
prospect.
Today, the New York Times reported that
a new hyper-exclusive resort for the "ultra-rich" called Unlimited
Speed is being developed in Georgia (where else?) featuring a private
Nascar-quality race track where Goldman Sachs bonus boys and other such
grandees can get their rocks off. They'd better fortify the place well.
They'd better put a wall around it with an electrified fence and a
death strip, because otherwise, sooner or later, if the regulatory
authorities do not act, some very pissed off and energetic young
Americans are going to steal into places like this and deal out some
rough justice.
Merry Christmas everybody.
