The Advisors' Blog

Unfortunately, there’s plenty of examples of CEOs that “just don’t get it.” However, Wells Fargo took this concept a step further by purchasing full-page ads in several national papers this past Sunday to defend its poor decision to continue a Vegas junket for employees.

In this press release, the company defends itself. And CEO John Stumpf further defends the decision because the money for the recognition event came from profits, not the $25 billion in TARP money the bank received. Here is what my mailman told me: “If so, why don’t you just take some of those profits and pay the taxpayers back now?”

Or as I like to put it: “okay, we get it Wells Fargo – you’re just not into us taxpayers.”

Right now, it’s clear that optics matter. And there is no difference between a business trip and a junket in the minds of many. I wonder how long it’s gonna take until these CEOs “get it.” For some, I imagine they won’t until their mansions are surrounded by people with pitchforks.

It’s still too soon to tell if the executive compensation restrictions stimulus bill died in conference as the reports have been mixed so far on that. Even if they were cut from the stimulus bill, Jesse’s piece about key fixes to the new Treasury guidelines still is timely and his points were recently picked up by Joe Nocera in the NY Times’ “Executive Suite Blog.”

We encourage you to forward Nocera’s blog to key members of Congress and Treasury and other decisionmakers. We each have a responsibility to help the government “get it right.”