Why Are Execs of Bankrupt Companies Being Rewarded With Millions?

Jul 14, 2020 at 19:00 UTCUpdated Jul 14, 2020 at 20:31 UTC

Why Are Execs of Bankrupt Companies Being Rewarded With Millions?

It’s hard to tell people not to be angry with capitalism when the system is rewarding failure with millions of dollars in bankruptcy bonuses.

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This episode is sponsored by Bitstamp and Crypto.com.

Today on the Brief:

A followup on Tesla, corporate earnings and PayPal’s crypto ambitions
New COVID-19 shutdowns in California
Small businesses on the brink

Our main conversation:

Bloomberg has reported recently bankrupt companies including J.C. Penney and Hertz had provided executives with more than $131,000,000 in bonuses.

On this episode of The Breakdown, NLW examines:

The logic behind these bonuses
Why that logic is stupid
How this sort of reward for personal failure in the wake of 2008 led to the rise of populism on the right and left
Why we should allow companies to fail
Why people’s sense that the system is a crony system isn’t wrong

Disclosure

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