Jim Cramer
Scott Mlyn | CNBC
CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Thursday that whatever happens on the other side of the coronavirus crisis CEOs should not benefit more than their employees.
“I like anything that protects the works,” Cramer said on “Squawk on the Street.” “We can not have the fat cats make money at the expense of the workers.”
The “Mad Money” host was lamenting the moral hazards of the 2008 financial crisis when companies got bailouts and chief executives got incentives as many workers lost their jobs.
“We can’t keep doing this because CEOs made out like bandits,” Cramer said. “What we have to do is take a look at … who the highest paid people are and tell them, ‘Look, you can get this first lien’ but … your salary is going to go to the workers.'”
Cramer was railing against the same things billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban has been hammering home this week.
On CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday, Cuban said, “Whatever we do in a bailout, make sure that every worker is compensated and treated equally — in that the executives don’t get rewarded extra to stick around because they got nowhere else to go.”
Cuban, owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks and a “Shark Tank” investor, said that bailed out companies should not be allowed to ever buy back their stocks again.
“Not now. Not a year from now. Not 20 years from now. Not ever,” he said. “Because effectively you’re spending taxpayer money to buyback stock and to me that’s just the wrong way to do that.”