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American Morning

Minding Your Business: Stephen Friedman Stuck in Full Nelson

Aired December 11, 2002 - 09:19   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: We continue to shake down what's happening. Steve Friedman is a guy who's name we've talked about for three days.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Yes, he is the person apparently President Bush is going to nominate as his chief economic adviser, but he hasn't been tabbed yet, unlike the new Treasury guy, the new guy at the SEC. Why is that? The word in Washington is they are going through his financial records very, very, very carefully.

Of course, in this post-Enron era, you can't be too careful, and the guy was at Goldman Sachs, was on various boards, so they are really going through things carefully.

Also, there's been some complaints from the supply-side crowd, saying that he's opposed deficits, and may not be a strong advocate for tax cuts. I think that's he wouldn't even be considered by the president if he were not in lockstep with that.

HEMMER: Which was one of the headlines for John Snow on Monday.

SERWER: Very interesting also, we found out in looking at this bio that Friedman was an outstanding college wrestler at Cornell. Get this, he defeated Doug Bloombell (ph), who won the Olympic gold medal decades ago. So don't mess with Stephen Friedman.

HEMMER: Don't get him on the mat.

What's happen with WorldCom.

SERWER: WorldCom's new CEO, Michael Capellas is under fire from a federal judge. It has to do with his pay package. The federal judge called it grossly excessive -- as opposed to moderately excessive? I'm not sure what that means.

Anyway, look at those numbers, a million here, two million there, a million there, and them $18 million when the company comes out of bankruptcy. OK, that's a lot of money.

HEMMER: Not bad work if you can get it.

SERWER: That's almost as much as you're making.

Listen, a lot of money, but the question is, how much money do you pay a named executive to run a company that's in that much trouble. I mean, you have got to pay them millions of dollars, otherwise they aren't going to take the job. I think that is a step too far, and you'll see that ratcheted back.

HEMMER: We'll see which way that goes. Executive compensation was another topic that John Snow was on on Monday.

SERWER: Thank you, Andy.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com




Nelson>


Aired December 11, 2002 - 09:19   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: We continue to shake down what's happening. Steve Friedman is a guy who's name we've talked about for three days.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Yes, he is the person apparently President Bush is going to nominate as his chief economic adviser, but he hasn't been tabbed yet, unlike the new Treasury guy, the new guy at the SEC. Why is that? The word in Washington is they are going through his financial records very, very, very carefully.

Of course, in this post-Enron era, you can't be too careful, and the guy was at Goldman Sachs, was on various boards, so they are really going through things carefully.

Also, there's been some complaints from the supply-side crowd, saying that he's opposed deficits, and may not be a strong advocate for tax cuts. I think that's he wouldn't even be considered by the president if he were not in lockstep with that.

HEMMER: Which was one of the headlines for John Snow on Monday.

SERWER: Very interesting also, we found out in looking at this bio that Friedman was an outstanding college wrestler at Cornell. Get this, he defeated Doug Bloombell (ph), who won the Olympic gold medal decades ago. So don't mess with Stephen Friedman.

HEMMER: Don't get him on the mat.

What's happen with WorldCom.

SERWER: WorldCom's new CEO, Michael Capellas is under fire from a federal judge. It has to do with his pay package. The federal judge called it grossly excessive -- as opposed to moderately excessive? I'm not sure what that means.

Anyway, look at those numbers, a million here, two million there, a million there, and them $18 million when the company comes out of bankruptcy. OK, that's a lot of money.

HEMMER: Not bad work if you can get it.

SERWER: That's almost as much as you're making.

Listen, a lot of money, but the question is, how much money do you pay a named executive to run a company that's in that much trouble. I mean, you have got to pay them millions of dollars, otherwise they aren't going to take the job. I think that is a step too far, and you'll see that ratcheted back.

HEMMER: We'll see which way that goes. Executive compensation was another topic that John Snow was on on Monday.

SERWER: Thank you, Andy.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com




Nelson>