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Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Took €65m in State aid

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Re: Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Took €65m in State aid

#51
post #40

The real error here is public money being given to private companies. Let them break Fund people, not companies

Imho, the main error is that they gave away the money unconditionally. The fact that the particular government didn't foresee this outcome is quite astonishing.

They did see it coming and in fact they were trying to increase inflation.

Re: Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Took €65m in State aid

#52

Stop using marketplaces and book directly, these companies have no risks and take 16% to 30% commissions. If consumers start booking directly, recovery from the pandemic will be much faster.

Any “solution” to the problem of excessive power of platforms that is based on the “individually do the harder thing” is bound to miserably fail. I think this kind of fallacy should have a name by now.

My shorthand for all sorts of loosely related lazy thinking like that is “just skate better”[0]. Applies individually and collectively.

[0]: https://youtu.be/jE494P5gQaY

Re: Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Took €65m in State aid

#53

I'm surprised anyone is surprised. Here in the US we've spent several trillion dollars on Covid relief so far, and there's more to come. When you're dealing with a torrent of printed cash of this magnitude, there's of course going to be a lot of it that ends up in the wrong hands for the wrong reasons.

No one would be surprised if this was about the US, but it's that "euro" symbol that makes it surprising.

The execs who benefited are US-based:

"As a result, the total remuneration for the three-member U.S. board of parent company Booking Holdings last year converted to more than 28 million euros. Some 5.8 million euros in shares and cash went to CEO Glenn Fogel, and 2.8 million euros went to Peter Millones, the vice president. Nearly 20 million euros, mostly in shares, went to CFO David Goulden, according to company documents reviewed by NRC. The company was concerned they could otherwise lose the three top executives."

Also, LMAO at "concerned they could otherwise lose the three top executives." They always use that excuse to plunder.

Meanwhile "Fixed salaries of the management in Amsterdam headquarters were however cut by 20 percent"

Re: Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Took €65m in State aid

#55
post #40

The real error here is public money being given to private companies. Let them break Fund people, not companies

Imho, the main error is that they gave away the money unconditionally. The fact that the particular government didn't foresee this outcome is quite astonishing.

The reasonable short notice caused the government to decide the lesser of evils: allow some abuse to help most, (un)fortunately this exposes the excesses. Booking.com "decided" to not take part in the second round three months later mainly due to the legal work being well enough established and in place to force the company to forgo any firing of people and any bonuses to executives.

Yes an error, but as always there is some nuance.

Re: Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Took €65m in State aid

#56

The real error here is public money being given to private companies. Let them break Fund people, not companies

>Fund people, not companies it depended. large corporation like Apple don't need the money but mom and pop shop that is forced to close during the peak should receive money. the sad thing is corporation that clearly can make it thur covid is receiving the largest amount like https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/0...

Or, instead of funding either corporation, just give mom and pop money. Instead of business bailouts, we should've done regular, recurring stimulus checks that would help business owners cover bills while they're businesses were closed, and help employees cover bills while they're unable to work.

Re: Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Took €65m in State aid

#57
post #3

Directly via bailouts and indirectly via inflation, COVID was the biggest wealth transfer to the rich in history.

I saw people buying firearms with stimulus checks more than anything else. I saw a couple buy 2 identical $1300 handguns at once. They were joking about the stim checks. And annoyed they'd have to wait a week to pick up their purchases.

Re: Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Took €65m in State aid

#58
post #39

It's interesting the CFO got more than 3x the CEO, and more than 2x CEO + VP. Does anyone know the reasoning behind that? It seems a bit shady to me in general for a CFO to be paid large performance bonuses.

The CEO and the VP get the taste of the wig to not make much noise.

"taste of the wig"? I don't know that saying.. is it "wine"?

Re: Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Took €65m in State aid

#60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's actually quite shocking how, when the primary idea is "dump money into the economy," giving the money to people instead of banks or firms is so controversial. It's more socialist and more capitalist, if you believe in that sort of thing.

I'm not saying you're wrong when I say consider the following: if every individual had a bunch of free money and decided to not work, then the next day they drive to the store and there is no one working... what do they do? Didn't you just cause a ton of inflation? At the end of the day, money doesn't solve problems. Work being done solves problems. How that should affect policy... I have no idea but I can see both s…

Or businesses can increase their unlivable wages.

I am certainly willing to pay 30 cents more for my Big Mac so that the employee gets $15/h instead of 8

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