Why we fight: The staggering hypocrisy of Jon Corzine

The Occupy Wall Street movement isn't about "Democrat" or "Republican" -- I think our friends right here in Occupy Philadelphia proved that by planning to protest Bill Clinton just as aggressively as they planned to protest Eric Cantor (both "men" cancelled -- Clinton blamed the snowstorm...whatevs). No, it's about the United States devolving from a nation that made things to a nation where a greedy and power-mad 1 Percent take things. There's no greater hypocrite than a politician who sends progressive words out of his mouth while his mind is still coveting other people's money.

There's no greater hypocrite than "liberal Democrat" Jon Corzine (D-Goldman Sachs). This is why we fight:

When I read MF Global Finance's second-quarter results, though, what popped out at me was its compensation expenses: 64 percent of revenues went to compensation. In any industry but Wall Street, that would be obscene. Indeed, in a talk he gave at Princeton last year, Corzine said that he'd been "arguing about compensation sins of Wall Street" for decades. Not enough to actually do anything about it, though, once he was back in charge of a firm.

Then there's Corzine's own compensation. When he walked in the door, he negotiated a salary of $1.5 million. (Incredibly, MF Global Holdings paid a $400,000 fee to Corzine's lawyers.) He also received a signing bonus of $1.5 million, and $11 million in stock options.

But here's the kicker. Like many executives — on Wall Street and off — Corzine's agreement also covered his eventual departure. If he left MF Global because, say, it was sold, his $11 million in stock options would immediately vest, and he would get a $12.1 million golden parachute. Of course, the MF Global proxy statement doesn't call it a golden parachute. It calls the payment "severance."

There's more to the story. When Joe Nocera wrote this killer column earlier this week, it hadn't even come out yet that....THE MONEY'S GONE!!!

Federal regulators have discovered that hundreds of millions of dollars in customer money has gone missing from MF Global in recent days, prompting an investigation into the brokerage firm, which is run by Jon S. Corzine, the former New Jersey governor, several people briefed on the matter said on Monday.

I'm sure there's a perfectly good explanation for all this. OK, I'm being sarcastic...there may be a good explanation, or there may not be. If not, I hope there's an honest judge out there who will throw the book at a corporate crook like Jon Corzine and send him up the proverbial river for a long, long time. And there's dozens of other crooks on Wall Street who should be in the slammer along with him. And I don't care any more that you opposed the death penalty or agreed with me on some social issues. Times have changed. The rules have changed, too.