Thursday, January 28, 2010
Press Release - Stonepine Productions, LLC releases "The Bonus"
See press release re: The Bonus issued on January 28, 2010. Stonepine Productions, LLC is offering the electronic version of The Bonus free to the public for a limited time.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Oil Drilling Off The West African Coast
It's no secret that oil companies operating off the African Coast have had a field day generating significant revenues there. The major cost, other than direct cost of drilling, has been the cost to keep the corrupt ruling government officials on-shore fat and happy while the native populations gain little or no benefit from the rape of their natural resources.
It is very difficult to achieve any changes in this deplorable situation because western governments support the corrupt on-shore regimes. In The Bonus, the fictional west African country, Kanbia, tries to break free of this dilemma by voting in a new president in a democratic election process. But the largest oil company operating in its territorial waters devises a plan to undermine the program on which the new president was swept into office.
The question is what will happen to Tim Farley when he has to juggle the forces of corporate oil company power, ruthless middle eastern bankers, desperate hit men and even the powers of animistic African religious beliefs in order to get his deal done.
West African spirit house.
It is very difficult to achieve any changes in this deplorable situation because western governments support the corrupt on-shore regimes. In The Bonus, the fictional west African country, Kanbia, tries to break free of this dilemma by voting in a new president in a democratic election process. But the largest oil company operating in its territorial waters devises a plan to undermine the program on which the new president was swept into office.
The question is what will happen to Tim Farley when he has to juggle the forces of corporate oil company power, ruthless middle eastern bankers, desperate hit men and even the powers of animistic African religious beliefs in order to get his deal done.
West African spirit house.Monday, January 18, 2010
Wall Street Bonus Pool for 2008 "Shameful and the Height of Irresponsibility."
On January 29, 2009, President Obama described the 2008 Wall Street bonus pool as shameful and the height of irresponsibility. He apparently felt that a year that saw multi-billlion dollar government bailouts, staggering losses in the financial community and the demise of some of the most well known names in the banking community was no cause for celebration, much less payment of $18.4 billion in bonuses for a job well done. But 2008 apparently did not mark the "height of irresponsibility" as far as bonuses are concerned - the 2009 bonus pool increased by $5.5 billion (yes billion) over 2008.
As indicated in my blog of January 17, the culprit is the "all or nothing" concept in compensation arrangements especially in the investment banking community. The concept is so-called "asymmetric compensation," that is, very low base compensation, and potentially huge bonuses for accomplishing targeted goals. Since many investment bankers live well beyond what their meager base compensation could support, not achieving their bonuses is not an option. Accordingly, management can easily influence their behavior by agreeing to pay huge bonuses if what often turn out to outrageous goals are achieved, and then simply set out the ravenous hounds into the jungle to corral a pride of lions.
In The Bonus Tim Farley's formerly comfortable life becomes embroiled in just such a delemma when he takes on a hugh bonus deal for an oil company, but while he is desperate to achieve the bonus that can set him up for life, two powerful international groups threaten his life and his family's lives: one if he goes through with the deal, the other if he doesn't.
As indicated in my blog of January 17, the culprit is the "all or nothing" concept in compensation arrangements especially in the investment banking community. The concept is so-called "asymmetric compensation," that is, very low base compensation, and potentially huge bonuses for accomplishing targeted goals. Since many investment bankers live well beyond what their meager base compensation could support, not achieving their bonuses is not an option. Accordingly, management can easily influence their behavior by agreeing to pay huge bonuses if what often turn out to outrageous goals are achieved, and then simply set out the ravenous hounds into the jungle to corral a pride of lions.
In The Bonus Tim Farley's formerly comfortable life becomes embroiled in just such a delemma when he takes on a hugh bonus deal for an oil company, but while he is desperate to achieve the bonus that can set him up for life, two powerful international groups threaten his life and his family's lives: one if he goes through with the deal, the other if he doesn't.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
The Bonus
People often debate one another as to what are the greatest motivators of man. Put another way, what are the things that can most influence a person's behavior: fear, lust, love? Fear, some say, is the greatest behavior modifier. The most basic impulse of man is the fight or flight instinct. Fear is always with us and motivates us in an intense way even today: fear of failure, fear of war, fear of illness, fear of God, fear of hell, fear of being fired, on and on. There can be little doubt that fear can be used to influence behavior and of course often is.
Employed by most religions over the eons to motivate people to act in ways that meet their purposes is man's propensity for lust for it is a given, we are told, that it will leave one blind, diseased, sterile, insane, or all of these, if not dead, unless yielded to in only the narrowest of circumstances.
Love (hate), not to be confused with lust, although they are often easy to confuse, is a good behavior modifier, but is it as good as fear? Love, not lust, actually has an element of rationality about it because true love presumably is the result of knowing another deeply, acutely aware of his or her faults and virtues, but nevertheless still being drawn inexorably to the other person more by reason of a rational assessment over a protracted period of time rather than raw sexuality. Fear, on the other hand, is perhaps the human trait that has undergone the least amount of change over the millions of years of human evolution and is therefore our most basic and perhaps our strongest animal instinct.
But consider the workplace, especially today. In an effort to achieve unreasonable financial goals, meet wildest corporate objectives, or realize historic profits, which of these aspects of human nature do employers manipulate to influence an employee's behavior to such an extent that the employee would cast his or her morality to the winds, lie to loved ones, take totally irrational risks and generally behave in ways otherwise completely out of character? Will use of fear, lust, or love (hate) influence behavior in such ultra-extreme ways? No, they can be too easily abandoned when the going gets really rough. The strongest motivator of all in this setting, however, which is neither fear, lust, nor love, is well known in the workplace today and routinely used to achieve outlandish corporate goals and influence employees to take patently irrational risks. It is undeniably what has produced the greatest crash of the global economy since the so-called Great Depression. It is very simply unmitigated greed! For it is the love of money that is the root of all kinds of evil, says the good book (Timothy 6:10) and it is a well worn truism that every man has his price (Sir Robert Walpole).
Greed then is the greatest behavior modifier in corporate America today and comes too frequently in the guise of corporate bonus compensation programs. Nowhere is this compensation technique more insidious than in investment banking where bankers are provided a relatively small base salary (generally subsistence level for the lifestyles to which they have become accustomed) and astronomical bonuses (often in the many millions of dollars for a single deal) which, importantly, are only paid if the outrageous goals are achieved. Because of the potential size of these so-called success bonuses, employees, be they CEOs or investment bankers in the trenches, will take unconscionable risks (e.g., shocking hedge fund transactions, unscrupulous packaging of sub-prime mortgages, etc.), abandon all sense of ethics, (e.g., Enron, Global Crossing, etc.), or use whatever cutthroat tactics are required to get the job done. This is what happened on Wall Street to produce the great recession of 2007-2010 that has reverberated around the world.
The Bonus is a novel which tells the story of one struggling investment banker who gets caught up in the dark world of a big corporate financing deal for a world class oil company. The bonus he will receive on the successful closing of the deal will set him up for life, but his harrowing journey to the financial closing provides ample evidence of the devastation that such corporate bonus compensation programs can wreak.
Employed by most religions over the eons to motivate people to act in ways that meet their purposes is man's propensity for lust for it is a given, we are told, that it will leave one blind, diseased, sterile, insane, or all of these, if not dead, unless yielded to in only the narrowest of circumstances.
Love (hate), not to be confused with lust, although they are often easy to confuse, is a good behavior modifier, but is it as good as fear? Love, not lust, actually has an element of rationality about it because true love presumably is the result of knowing another deeply, acutely aware of his or her faults and virtues, but nevertheless still being drawn inexorably to the other person more by reason of a rational assessment over a protracted period of time rather than raw sexuality. Fear, on the other hand, is perhaps the human trait that has undergone the least amount of change over the millions of years of human evolution and is therefore our most basic and perhaps our strongest animal instinct.
But consider the workplace, especially today. In an effort to achieve unreasonable financial goals, meet wildest corporate objectives, or realize historic profits, which of these aspects of human nature do employers manipulate to influence an employee's behavior to such an extent that the employee would cast his or her morality to the winds, lie to loved ones, take totally irrational risks and generally behave in ways otherwise completely out of character? Will use of fear, lust, or love (hate) influence behavior in such ultra-extreme ways? No, they can be too easily abandoned when the going gets really rough. The strongest motivator of all in this setting, however, which is neither fear, lust, nor love, is well known in the workplace today and routinely used to achieve outlandish corporate goals and influence employees to take patently irrational risks. It is undeniably what has produced the greatest crash of the global economy since the so-called Great Depression. It is very simply unmitigated greed! For it is the love of money that is the root of all kinds of evil, says the good book (Timothy 6:10) and it is a well worn truism that every man has his price (Sir Robert Walpole).
Greed then is the greatest behavior modifier in corporate America today and comes too frequently in the guise of corporate bonus compensation programs. Nowhere is this compensation technique more insidious than in investment banking where bankers are provided a relatively small base salary (generally subsistence level for the lifestyles to which they have become accustomed) and astronomical bonuses (often in the many millions of dollars for a single deal) which, importantly, are only paid if the outrageous goals are achieved. Because of the potential size of these so-called success bonuses, employees, be they CEOs or investment bankers in the trenches, will take unconscionable risks (e.g., shocking hedge fund transactions, unscrupulous packaging of sub-prime mortgages, etc.), abandon all sense of ethics, (e.g., Enron, Global Crossing, etc.), or use whatever cutthroat tactics are required to get the job done. This is what happened on Wall Street to produce the great recession of 2007-2010 that has reverberated around the world.
The Bonus is a novel which tells the story of one struggling investment banker who gets caught up in the dark world of a big corporate financing deal for a world class oil company. The bonus he will receive on the successful closing of the deal will set him up for life, but his harrowing journey to the financial closing provides ample evidence of the devastation that such corporate bonus compensation programs can wreak.
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