SiliconBeat

The past couple of weeks have been equal parts confusing and unsettling. With all the comparing of the latest financial problems to the Great Depression, it’s enough to scare the heck out of anyone with a dime parked in a bank.

But what often makes crises like this one so terrifying is that they seem infinitely complex. If the titans of Wall Street blew it, how can helpless half-wits like me ever hope to understand what is happening, or even how I feel about the mammoth bailout?

Well, at last, some good news.

The folks at This American Life, the phenomenal National Public Radio show (broadcast locally on KQED) that explores a different theme each week, have done a couple of stellar shows that explain the mess. And they have another one coming up this weekend (check your local listings, of course). Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s another take on executive compensation and the bailout from someone that I really respect, Graef Crystal. For many years, Crystal wrote a column on executive compensation for Bloomberg. Now he’s launched his own Web site where he’s providing some in-depth analysis on issues that touch on executive compensation.

Crystal just posted his view on the debate on the bailout and executive compensation. In sum: Crystal things the bailout and limiting executive pay are both bad ideas:

“How about this for a deal: We don’t bail out the banks to the tune of $700 billion. And we don’t have pay controls on executives, either.”

His concern is that without the proper incentives, the banks won’t be able to attract the talented managers they need to turn themselves around. He also worries that companies will still find loopholes in any new restrictions, and the result will be unintended consequences. Read the rest of this entry »

This morning in the Mercury News, I wrote a column sharing my thoughts on the proposed bailout. The bottom line: We need to find better ways to reward risk without encouraging recklessness.

But this is just the beginning of this debate. Already this morning, my inbox is flooded with emails from readers and “experts” wanting to talk about the bailout. It’s scary stuff. There’s a lot of unknowns and what-ifs, and a healthy dose of outrage mixed in. A good recipe for getting your blood pressure racing up the charts.

Once you’re past the venting stage, there’s a way for you to participate in the debate. Via Craig Newmark’s blog, I found Public Markup. In short, it’s a place where pending pieces of legislation get posted and you can comment on various parts of them, or, in D.C. parlance, “mark them up.”The site is sponsored by the Sunlight Foundation. Read the rest of this entry »