Goin’ vertical

It’s “Vertical Day” at Mike Huckabee’s website. The former campaign website has been transformed to become the new home for Huck-PAC, and promises to endorse the candidates who will support the ideas and efforts the Huckabee campaign. And, it’s off to a great start.

“Vertical politics” relate to issues which are neither Left nor Right, but seek to lift everyone “Up”.

Here is what Governor Huckabee says about it:

If you followed my campaign for President than you may remember the first “Vertical Day” we held on September 24 of last year. On a day when many said we should have focused on our fundraising for that “all important” 3rd quarter financial report, we instead focused on the issues. I blogged about the issues, answered questions about specific issues and used video to speak to voters about issues important to our campaign. We also featured guest blog posts from key supporters of the campaign, supportive bloggers and a guest post from Newt Gingrich. We had a great time and received lots of positive feedback from supporters.

The campaign also featured a post from this blog. Cool, huh?

Today’s event also invites readers to submit there own ideas to some pretty serious challenges facing our nation:

-How would you control spending in Washington?

-How would you make America energy independent?

-What would you do to improve our education system?

-What would you do to improve our health care system?

-What sort of tax reform do you think America needs to boost our economy?

-What steps would you take to promote conservation and good stewardship of the environment?

Weighty issues, indeed. Here is where I would begin on the economy/tax reform/business ethics question…..

President Bush is catching some flak for saying that the core of our economic problem is that “Wall Street got drunk.” I think there is a lot of truth in that very blunt assessment. And, within that assessment lies the key to possibly fixing the problem.

Derivative investments, with their lack of transparency, and lack of a consistent method for fair valuation are a ticking bomb which threatens to wreck our economic system. Here is what I propose to begin getting back on the right track.

Tie executive compensation directly to the derivative investments held within that company’s asset portfolio. Compensation over and above $1,000,000 per year must be paid out in the form of these financial products, as valued on the company’s most recent 10-K. In addition, instead of granting incentive-based stock options in company stock, require that companies first use their existing portfolio of derivatives.

The way I see it is, if these “financial products” are good enough to invest the hard-earned stockholder’s equity in, then they’re good enough to pay the top execs with. Oh yeah, and those multi-million dollar severance packages? You guessed it. Forget paying those out in cash. Pay them out in “financial products” instead.

Obviously, the derivatives problem is not going to go away overnight. But, I’ll wager that if the top execs understand that the gravy train is over, and their own compensation will be directly affected by dabbling in these disasters, then they will begin to address the underlying challenges of transparency and valuation.

Sound too simplistic? Well, sometimes the simplest solutions are the best.

For more solutions, click on over to Huck-PAC

Later, y’all.
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