Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Took €65m in State aid

Re:Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Too... by akomtu on Friday May 28, 2021 @05:01PM (#27320450)

I remember it was mentioned in the gervais principle book: when an organization approaches its final stage, the top brass collects anything of value and jumps the ship, leaving the clueless staff. These recessions are a lot like this value extraction phase.

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Re:Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Too... by inter_netuser on Friday May 28, 2021 @05:09PM (#27320553)

Absolutely. Strip the country of assets and flee to a stable jurisdiction.

Wonder where will the American elites flee. Maybe won't need to, guns and all.

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Re:Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Too... by thinkmassive on Friday May 28, 2021 @04:12PM (#27319907)

...and all other forms of disaster capitalism

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Re:Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Too... by trentnix on Friday May 28, 2021 @04:18PM (#27319977)

disaster capitalism

Taking egregious sums of state aid is crony capitalism and is market manipulation. And wherever you find egregious market manipulation, you'll almost always find government doing the steering.

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Re:Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Too... by elliekelly on Friday May 28, 2021 @04:51PM (#27320346)

Captain Government may be at the helm, but they’re serving is at the pleasure of those contributing to their next campaign fund. If the Yacht owners want to go to Tahiti where do you think a Yacht captain is most likely to steer the ship?

It’s a cause and a symptom of “crony capitalism” — a feedback loop that perpetuates and exacerbates existing inequality.

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Re:Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Too... by andrepd on Friday May 28, 2021 @05:05PM (#27320492)

>government is doing the steering

That under capitalism those who accumulate massive amounts of wealth can use that wealth to “buy” the state institutions to do their bidding, is precisely (one of the) problems in capitalism.

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Re:Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Too... by trentnix on Friday May 28, 2021 @06:02PM (#27321039)

One way to address that problem is to prevent "state institutions" from being so powerful as being able to do anyone's bidding.

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Re:Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Too... by anigbrowl on Friday May 28, 2021 @06:11PM (#27321126)

Dysfunctional states aren't exactly thriving oases of enterprise and mutual aid, are they now? In practice they're dominated by warlords and rich people buy security and contract enforcement is a function of economic leverage, so poor people have very little economic mobility or opportunity.

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Re:Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Too... by trentnix on Friday May 28, 2021 @06:48PM (#27321422)

A state’s dysfunction is not diminished by the relative largesse and power of its government.

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Re:Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Too... by anigbrowl on Friday May 28, 2021 @08:52PM (#27322193)

I think you know quite well what I meant.

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Re:Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Too... by neonological on Tuesday June 08, 2021 @12:14AM (#27430574)

[redacted]

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Re:Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Too... by dang on Tuesday June 08, 2021 @12:20AM (#27430610)

You can't dox other users, or attack other users, on HN. I've banned this account. Please see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27430579.

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Re:Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Too... by ep103 on Friday May 28, 2021 @04:28PM (#27320085)

disaster capitalism is a term coined by Amy Goodman to describe the efforts of the most politically influential to steer the economy towards regular crises, and then take advantage of those crises via crony capitalism

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Re:Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Too... by CyberDildonics on Friday May 28, 2021 @05:08PM (#27320522)

That would not apply here, since this was not a financial crisis or caused by systemic long term effects of direct government action.

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Re:Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Too... by jessaustin on Friday May 28, 2021 @05:12PM (#27320593)

Can you point to an example of "capitalism" that is not also an example of "crony capitalism"?

I feel that we should seek something more like "free markets" and "free enterprise". C[rony, if you insist, c]apitalists hate both of those things, and undermine them at every opportunity.

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