We're Not Singapore But it's a First Step

AP is reporting Obama to freeze all wages for anyone over $100K in federal government.

***Mark hearts Obama***

EDIT: Reader informs Obama is is only freezing wages for WHITE HOUSE workers - not all federal government types.

EDIT: ***Mark retracts heart***

Wait... under CEO logic this means we will lose all our top talent to other governments since we are not paying the "market rate".... hmmm....

I wish we could do this through state governments too - this has been a huge beef; how the private sector is getting ransacked but almost no wage cuts, benefit cuts in government. Some job losses here or there but by and large - business as usual.

Can we clawback 8 years of Bush salary?

It's a good first step but I'd like to compare and contrast to this report from Singapore yesterday.

• Singapore’s government said it will cut the salaries of its top public workers and ministers as a “sharp” recession threatens to increase job losses and hurt lending this year. The top government salaries will fall 12 percent to 20 percent in 2009 and “may be subject to further adjustments given the volatility of the economy,” Teo Chee Hean, the defense minister who’s also in charge of the civil service, said in parliament today.

p.s. this is one SAD bounce - 14% down in two weeks, 5% down yesterday alone and we struggle to make +1%? If the bulls "action" followed the "talk" on financial media we should be up 15% today alone.