Money For Nothing

Getting paid a lot for messing up. A lot of folks believe that the profligate loan policies of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac help precipitate the financial crisis in the United States and the multibillion dollar bailout both government-sponsored entities subsequently received. So they won’t be happy to learn that nearly $100 million of their tax dollars went to lucrative pay packages for the agencies’ executives. The two top guys, Fannie Mae CEO Michael Williams and Freddie Mac CEO Charles Haldeman, each collected about $5.5 million last year and may get even more. Congress has promised to investigate.

Paying a lot just for waiting. A new IBOPE Zogby poll indicates that waiting for the cable guy or other at-home appointments cost Americans nearly $38 billion in lost wages in 2011. The average waiting time for the 1,000 adults polled was 4.5 hours. Seventy percent of respondents said they would recommend a company simply for showing up on time. Offender Comcast has promised customers it will do better.

Hollywood’s most overpaid stars. Forbes magazine reviewed the salaries and ticket sales of Hollywood’s 40 highest-earning stars. Drew Barrymore topped the list of “most overpaid,” earning her studios a paltry 40 cents for every dollar she collected. Eddie Murphy was in second place, with Will Ferrell, Reese Witherspoon and Denzel Washington rounding out the top five.

Please give the guy the microphone. A lot of Ron Paul fans thought their guy was given short shrift during the Republican presidential debate in South Carolina last week. They were absolutely right. During the course of that 90-minute debate, Paul was allowed to speak for a measly 89 seconds. This isn’t the first time this has happened. A study by the University of Minnesota last month reported that Paul has been given the least amount of speaking time of all candidates, despite beating several of them in the polls.

–Chip Wood