AS THEY SAY, TIMING IS EVERYTHING – AT 8:36 A.M. ET:  It never ceases to amaze me how some "executives" manage to undermine support for the free-enterprise system.  It's as if they're closet Marxists trying to bring it down.

Now comes the latest episode featuring an exquisite mix of bad taste and bad timing.  This will be extraordinarily popular at a moment when ordinary people are being asked to sacrifice:

(CNN) -- Declaring 2010 "the best year in safety performance in our company's history," Transocean Ltd., owner of the Gulf of Mexico oil rig that exploded, killing 11 workers, has awarded its top executives hefty bonuses and raises, according to a recent filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

That includes a $200,000 salary increase for Transocean president and chief executive officer Steven L. Newman, whose base salary will increase from $900,000 to $1.1 million, according to the SEC report.

Newman's bonus was $374,062, the report states.

Newman also has a $5.4 million long-term compensation package the company awarded him upon his appointment as CEO in March 2010, according to the SEC filing.

The latest cash awards are based in part on the company's "performance under safety," the Transocean filing states.

"Notwithstanding the tragic loss of life in the Gulf of Mexico, we achieved an exemplary statistical safety record as measured by our total recordable incident rate and total potential severity rate," the SEC statement reads. "As measured by these standards, we recorded the best year in safety performance in our Company's history."

Oh, guys, come on.  There's a time and place.  Maybe the statisticians say you did well, but when you've got the Gulf oil spill on your backs, and 11 dead workers of your own, you might want to lie low and shut up. 

Reminds me of the BP big shot who complained that the oil spill was interfering with his lifestyle. 

In the early fifties, Secretary of Defense-designate Charles E. Wilson, the head of GM, got into trouble for saying that "what's good for General Motors is good for the country."  It was only a partial quote that distorted what he meant, but the country was in an uproar and Wilson almost didn't get his Cabinet post. 

I don't think we have the same sensibility today.  I wish we did.  You may be sure that the people who gave us this enormous recession will go right back to their old practices unless they are publicly shamed and shunned.  They haven't been.  As a society, we should be discussing this.

April 4, 2011