You Are Being Trashed, Tricked or Mistreated by 21st Century Robber Barons: Happy Halloween Every Day of the Year!

Do you have a checking and a (practically-non-interest-bearing) money market account at Chase, Harris, Bank of America or LaSalle National Bank? Is your bank from the Wintrust Financial group: the Community Bank of Western Springs, Naperville Bank & Trust, Wheaton Bank & Trust Company, Glen Ellyn Bank & Trust, Community Bank of Downers Grove, Hinsdale Bank, Barrington Bank & Trust Company (there are many others)? Do you have a credit card from Bank of America, Discover or Citigroup? Is your auto-and-home insurance company Allstate? Do you have a Motorola cellular phone? Is your phone service provider AT &T? Do you attend White Sox and Bulls’ games? Do you subscribe to the Chicago Tribune or the Chicago Sun-Times? Do you have your prescriptions filled at Walgreens? Do you eat at McDonalds and buy your groceries at Jewel? Do you shop at Crate & Barrel and Wal-Mart? Do you buy your gasoline from BP? Have you ever slept in a Hyatt Hotel?

Are you giving your money unwittingly to these companies and banks? Consider this “partial” list of company CEOs who are also members of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago/Illinois Is Broke:

Glenn Tilton, Chairman of the mid-west region (J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.); David W. Fox, Jr., Vice Chairman (J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.); Alan G. McNally, retired Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (Harris Bank); Edward J. Wehmer, President and Chief Executive Officer (Wintrust Financial Corp.); Philip W. Hummer, Senior Vice President (Wintrust Wealth Management); Ellen Costell, CEO and US Countryhead (BMO Financial Corp. Harris Bank); Milton F. Darr, Jr., retired Chairman of the Board (LaSalle National Bank); Verne G. Istock, retired Chairman and President (Bank One Corporation/J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.); Timothy P. Maloney, Illinois President (Bank of America); Wilma J. Smelcer, retired Chair (Bank of America, Illinois); David W. Nelms, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (Discover Financial Services); James T. Glerum, Jr., Chairman North America Regional Banking (Citigroup); Cary A. Kochman, Head of North America M&A/Co-Head, Chicago (Citigroup); Edward M. Liddy, retired Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (Allstate Insurance Corp.); Wayne E. Hedien, Chairman Emeritus (Allstate Insurance Corp.); Greg Q. Brown, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (Motorola Solutions);

Paul V. La Schiazza, President, Illinois (AT&T); William K. Ketchum, retired President Central Region (AT&T); Bernard F. Sergesketter, retired Vice President, (AT&T); Mary N. Dillon, President and Chief Executive Officer (U.S. Cellular); Jerry M. Reinsdorf, Chairman (Chicago White Sox, Chicago Bulls); Tony W. Hunter, Chief Executive Officer (Tribune Publishing Co.); John W. Madigan, retired Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (Tribune Publishing Co.); Stanton R. Cook, retired Chairman (Tribune Publishing Co.); Scott C. Smith, retired President & Publisher (Tribune Publishing Co.); Cyrus F. Freidheim, Jr., retired President and Chief Executive Officer (Sun-Times Media Group); Gregory D. Wasson, President and Chief Executive Officer (Walgreens Co.); James A. Skinner, Vice Chairman and Chief Executive (McDonald’s Corp.); Fred L. Turner, Honorary Chairman (McDonald’s Corp.); Lawrence Howe, Senior Advisor – The Chicago Community Trust and former Chairman (Jewel Companies, Inc.); Donald S. Perkins, retired Chairman (Jewel Companies, Inc.); Gordon I. Segal, Co-Founder (Crate & Barrel); Jane J. Thompson, former President, Financial Services (Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.); John R. Thomas, retired President, Midwest Fuels Value Chain (BP Products North America, Inc.); Thomas J. Pritzker, Chairman (Hyatt Hotels Corp.)…

About moving your money out of the Big Banks

for membership of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago: Click Here.

Meanwhile, has anything changed in two years about politics and money? Yes. It gets worse.

Here's an update from Roger Sanders (October 31, 2013):

Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. (Decatur, IL) is asking Illinois’ taxpayers for a $24 million tax break to relocate their corporate headquarters to Chicago.  The underlying “threat” is that if they don’t get their way, they are also considering other places to relocate their headquarters which houses about 100 top positions.  You might like to know that just the top seven Archer-Daniels-Midland executives’ compensation last year totaled over $30 million.  This does not include any deferred compensation for their pensions...

Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. executives’ compensation 2012:

$31,655,494 annual compensation for the top seven executives:

P.A. Woertz, Chairman, CEO and President: $8, 955,977
J.D. Rice, Vice Chairman: $5,370,070
J.R. Luciano, Executive Vice President and CEO: $4,580,808
D.J. Smith, Executive Vice President, Secretary and General Counsel: $4,349,581
S.R. Mills, Senior Executive Vice President, Performance and Growth: $3,873,383
R.G. Young, Senior Vice President and CEO: $2,551,512
M.J. Jansen, Senior Vice President: $1,974,166 (Source: Annual SEC Proxy)

ADM is not the only Illinois corporation with highly-compensated CEO’s that warrant our attention. The following are some examples of Illinois’ CEO compensation and pension benefits:

Caterpillar Chief Executive 2012
Douglas R. Oberhelman
Cash pay of $6,958,076
Total compensation: $17,738,076 (20% increase over 2011)
Lump sum pension: $16,943,243
Deferred compensation: $5,035,193 (Source: Annual SEC Proxy)

Boeing Chief Executive 2012
W. James McNerney, Jr.
Cash pay of $13,590,355 
Total compensation: $21,117,344 (15% increase over 2011)
Lump sum pension: $42,910,774
Deferred compensation: $2,962,452 (Source: Annual SEC Proxy)

Abbott Laboratories Chief Executive 2012
Miles D. White
Cash pay of $6,958,076
Total compensation: $18,955,889 (2% increase over 2011)
Lump sum pension: $36,662,770 (Source: Annual SEC Proxy)

Crown Holdings Chief Executive 2012
John W. Conway
Cash pay $5,157,084
Total compensation: $12,027,126 (8% decrease from 2011)
Lump sum pension: $33,422,643 (Source: Annual SEC Proxy)

Cumulative lump sum pensions due these four CEOs to date (Caterpillar, Boeing, Abbott, and Crown) is $129,939,430.

As a point of reference, if the average retired teacher pension is approximately $50,000 and that retired teacher drew his or her pension for 30 years, the total lifetime pension payment would be $1.5 million. Compare that to the average $32.4 million pension set aside for the above CEOs.  On average, these four individuals’ lump sum pension accrued (to date) represents the lifetime pension of over 20 retired teachers for each CEO… You can draw your own conclusions as to which persons make the greatest contribution to our state, corporate CEOs or teachers in classrooms... 

Remember, two-thirds of Illinois’ corporations pay no corporate income taxes according to the Illinois Department of Revenue.

Have you talked to your legislators today? The Veto session continues next week?