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The Prairie Populist: Byron Dorgan

Sen. Byron Dorgan, a populist Democrat from North Dakota, has a new book out entitled “Take This Job and Ship It: How Corporate Greed and Brain-Dead Politics Are Selling Out America.”

By David Sirota

North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan is a popular Democrat from a very “red” rural state. He’s remained a voter favorite not because he’s tried to split the difference with Republicans or suck up to the Washington power structure, but because of the populist stands embodied in his new book Take This Job and Ship It: How Corporate Greed and Brain-Dead… return to article

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    Byron Dorgan is one of the few in congress I wish I could vote FOR. (I’m usually voting against the worse of two choices.)

    He has often spoken out on this issue, but as always with Short-Span TV, he is outnumbered in any discussion and cut off by a commercial break. (Probably by one of those companies who are selling us out.)

    I have not read his book yet, but I hope he mentions something about the obscene sums of money being stolen from stockholders as “added incentive” (6 or 7-figure salaries are not enough?) for corporate executives and directors.  Directors theoretically represent the shareholder, however, they often serve on each other’s boards creating corporate incestuous relationships.

    The worst example I have seen lately can be found at:

    http://www.marketwatch.com/tools/quotes/insiders.asp?siteid=mktw&symb=CHK&am mp;sid=9886&time=8

    You will see there that Martha Burger, Senior Vice President & Treasurer, exercised stock options August 3, ($2.25/Share) and sold at market price August 4 ($33.00/Share).  Nearly 15 times her money over night — Sleep well, Martha?

    I have been unable to raise any interest from my representatives, union officials, or financial publications — after writing dozens of letters over the past decade.

    United States Posted by whattheheck on Sep 13, 2006 at 6:40 AM

    Hi Heck, thanks for the lead to this.
    .

    And I said, “You know what, this is bullshit. I’m not going to support something that I think undermines our country’s interests. I don’t believe this was negotiated in a way that represents our country’s best interests.”

    A man to watch, indeed.  I like the way he is described as a “populist” --- if that’s a populist , sign me up !

    France Posted by frog on Sep 15, 2006 at 9:45 AM

    i have read most of bryan dorgans book “take this job and ship it”. All i can say is that this man needs to be president.

    United States Posted by MediaFriend on Sep 18, 2006 at 3:27 PM

    I was almost going to cry for Mr. Whatthehecks stocks.  Is he trying out for the most disgusting poster at this site.

    There are ways to benefit from trade but it doesn’t have to lower standards of living in this country. Ideally there should be a method to raise living standards world wide while people look out for their own best interests.

    United States Posted by Spinoza750 on Sep 20, 2006 at 3:27 AM

    Spinoza,

    Whattheheck is your point regarding “...trying out for the most disgusting poster” bit?

    I would agree not only that there should be ways to benefit from trade without lowering our living standards — in fact we used to benefit while raising living standards.

    That was before we had 36,000 lobbyists in DC.

    Boards used to be approachable and concerned about the interests of individual stockholders — but that was before huge computerized trades by mutual funds swamped investing. Today most annual meetings are conducted by proxies and most proxies are institutionally controlled.

    Which way do you want it —
    A. People looking out for their own best interests, or…
    B. people looking out for people.

    I would say Martha is totally looking out for her own best interests as are thousands of other execs.

    United States Posted by whattheheck on Sep 20, 2006 at 10:09 AM

    stockholders boohoo.

    United States Posted by MediaFriend on Oct 5, 2006 at 11:22 PM
    Page 1 of 1 pages

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