The CEO Game

A new pub in Manhattan now offers, beers that their prices are set by the visitor’s demand, much like trading in the stock exchange. The owners admits that it’s all about the gimmick, but they hope that people will come.

How much does a pint cost? Well apparently is up to the market forces: a new pub in Manhattan offers a menu in which prices of the dishes and drinks will rise or fall according to the demand in the pub.

The Beer Exchange.

The prices will depend on the visitor’s demand, and they will change in a 25 cents jumps. For example a price of  a single glass of whisky could start at 10 bucks or 4 bucks , depending on the demand,  so popular drinks will be more expensive while less popular drinks will be much cheaper.

The owners admit that the stock theme is just a marketing gimmick, but they hope that the low prices, of some of the drinks and dishes, will attract the clients.

Ailon.

The CEO Game.

In an interview on “Political Capital with Al Hunt” earlier this week, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner criticized both the huge bank bonuses continue to be doled out, even following billion-dollar government bailouts, and dismissed the Goldman Sachs’ claim that the company would have weathered the financial crisis without government help. So continues the public and the politician’s horror at the audacity and arrogance of the banks.

"Classic Bank Run"

Many analysts agree that one component that lead to the financial crisis was the huge bonuses that were given out on Wall Street. These absurd bonuses reward the sort of risk-taking that led banks into the sub-prime mortgage fiasco. These bonuses also enrage Americans on a moral level. How could it be that those people who so recklessly led the country into recession are now the ones who are receiving huge sums of money while many Americans are, as a result of their behavior, unemployed? And furthermore, how can these companies take money from the very taxpayers who are now suffering only to use it to lavish bonuses on their execs? Something is amiss.

And Geithner agrees. “We want to see fundamental constraints on how senior executives are paid at these institutions,” he said in the interview. The question is, of course, if the banks care what he says. Research done by Johnson Associates in November found that bonuses in 2009 would be up 40% from 2008, which was the low point of the financial crisis. In 2008, almost $20 billion in cash awards and billions in stock and other perks were given to Wall Street employees. People who trade bonds, commodities, and currencies might even see their bonuses back at their pre-crisis levels.

Perhaps in an attempt to reign in this supreme arrogance shown by the banks, Geithner also criticized the golden boy of Wall Street, Goldman Sachs. Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman, claimed recently that the company would have survived the crisis even without the 10 billion dollars it took from the federal government. In the interview, Geithner said that during the crisis all banks in the US were experiencing a “classic bank run” and “none of them would have survived a situation in which we had let that fire try to burn itself out.”

Tamar.

The CEO Game.