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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

#271

Post by shkkmo »

necovek wrote: post #189
shkkmo wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason why Booking.com had no money and needed a bailout is because they spent billions on stock buybacks. So when a company that does lots of buy backs later issues stock to pay bonuses, they might as well be directly using cash from the bailout. Edit: For concrete numbers, Booking.com spent 5.5 BILLION on stock buybacks in the first half of 2019.

Buybacks are not mentioned in this article, and you quote a number from 2019, which is, to the best of my knowledge, pre-pandemic. If you are saying that they foresaw the pandemic and government grants, well... Now, I wouldn't be surprised that they were doing that even in 2020, considering they were also taking out $3B in loans (in addition to $100M of subsidies) to maintain the share value or reinvesting in themsel…

You have entirely missed the point. Which subsidies are bigger is irrelevant to what I said. The financial quarter the stockbuybacks happened under is irrelevant to what I said.

When a company has used so much of their recent cash in stock buybacks, it is disingenuous to call stock bonuses ethically different than cash bonuses.

To say the same thing another way. If the company was willing to issue those stocks to pay bonuses, why didn't they issue those stocks and sell them instead of taking bailout money.

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

#272

Post by anigbrowl »

trentnix wrote: post #245
anigbrowl wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dysfunctional states aren't exactly thriving oases of enterprise and mutual aid, are they now? In practice they're dominated by warlords and rich people buy security and contract enforcement is a function of economic leverage, so poor people have very little economic mobility or opportunity.

A state’s dysfunction is not diminished by the relative largesse and power of its government.

I think you know quite well what I meant.

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

#273

Post by coliveira »

donmcronald wrote: post #145
wskinner wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

New money does not reach all people at the same time. Those who get it first benefit more. This is known as the Cantillon Effect. https://fee.org/articles/the-cantillon-effect-because-of-inf...

Yep. Basically whoever gets the free money first get to buy / invest before anyone else even realizes the money supply has been diluted. The way money is printed and given directly to the rich via the financial industry needs to stop. If the money supply needs to be increased every year it should be done by giving it directly to the masses via UBI or similar. I'm starting to have the opinion we've been getting scamme…

Well, the system we now have was designed by the same people who are now becoming super millionaires and billionaires. How should it be different?

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

#274

Post by calt »

pwillia7 wrote: post #147
tracer4201 wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to convince you this isn’t a good idea. If all the businesses shut down in my town or city, what happens after? Where do I find work? Especially if I don’t have sufficient capital to start a new business (never mind the skills or training), what will I do then? How does society go back to normal? Do we stop all output and just have the government mail checks to every individual forever? That’s not going to wor…

just keep giving everyone more money Duh! /s

Well. Actually that’s not as terrible of an idea as you probably think.

Look into “modern monetary theory”

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

#275

Post by sokoloff »

garmaine wrote: post #76
slowhand09 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not rich here. Wife's company got COVID loans. They were forgiven. Company had to prove money was spent on rent, salaries, benefits. Company didn't make money on it. Employees were able to keep their jobs. No bonuses involved there.

What did they do with the regular income they had during that period that would have gone to rent, salaries, etc.?

You’re asking what booking.com (a travel booking agency that lives on fees earned when people are traveling and using them to buy it) did with all that money they were earning from their normal business operations given the collapse of travel volumes from March of 2020 to now?

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

#277

Post by __turbobrew__ »

RHSeeger wrote: post #235
__turbobrew__ wrote: post #151

Covid has got me thinking about the government’s role in social welfare. Providing social welfare through money allows for people to misallocate the money or skim off the top of the money. For the vast majority of people their covid stimulation money did not go into their pockets, it went to their landlord or their mortgage holder resulting in a massive wealth transfer from public funds to banks and those who own lan…

> For the vast majority of people their covid stimulation money did not go into their pockets, it went to their landlord or their mortgage holder And then the money that _would_ have gone to pay those bills went into their pocket; and then to presumably pay some other bills (food, etc). Paying for a place to live is an expected expense that most people have. Helping people pay that expense helps those people. To pret…

> Your solution is to have them stop paying for the house (lose it to the bank) and move into government housing. So, in exchange for a couple months of help with their bills, they get to discard their ownership in their house.

Yes, precisely. Part of the problem with skyrocketing housing prices is that the market is no longer rational. Bailing out home owners further entrenches the class divide between land owners and non land owners and limits upward mobility of those in lower classes.

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

#279

Post by novok »

Retric wrote: post #260
novok wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll be honest, the mortgage tax deduction doesn't deduct that much either as a proportion of income if you make a multi six figures income, much like the standard deduction. For example, if you have a $1mm house, your interest on a $800k mortgage @ %2.7 APR is a ~$30k/yr interest deduction, which is in the same range as the standard deduction, representing around $15k/yr paid in less taxes. For those kinds of people…

The mortgage deduction on it’s own isn’t such a big deal but it suddenly makes a lot of things tax deductible which aren’t if you take the standard deduction. The tax code is complex largely to enable such seemingly subtle interactions.

What kind of stuff becomes tax deductible once you get beyond the standard deduction, that doesn't involve having a business, which doesn't have that standard deduction limit anyway? Charitable donations? Medical expenses if you have a really bad time and need to spend more than %4 of your income to cover it?

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

#280

Post by sizzle »

deathtraphomes wrote: post #180
bredren wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The great recession resulted in the creation of Blackstone's Invitation Homes, which is the largest owner of single-family rental homes in the US. Homes that used to be owned and rented locally by individuals or small businesses are now rented and managed from elsewhere. Profits resulting from higher rents and cheaper maintenance flow to stock holders, creating bad incentives. These homes are no longer rotating into…

Ah, I moved into one of invitation homes a few years ago. Looked nice when we drove up, didn’t think about why all the windows were open when we signed paperwork. Their negligence nearly killed my family, and left us with life long injuries. The gas line was leaking natural gas, improper installation? the furnace and stove were emoting lethal levels of carbon monoxide. Detector was defective. A portion of the AC fell…

This sounds like an issue with that specific home. I’ve never heard of a home with this nanny life threatening issues not be condemned by fire or county authorities.
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