n.05_September_October.2009.Englisch._

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MEDIAWATCHlANGUAGE•

TIME FUß PAY LIMITS?

E

ar'ierthisyear,Americanswereveryangrytodiscover

thatAIGinsurancecompany(Versicherungsgesellschaft)

paidatleast$165millioninbonusesafterreceivingbailout

money(Rettungsgefder)fromtheUSgovernment.Someof

thebonuseswerepaidintheformofretentionpayments

(Halteprämienl.Inotherwords,theemployeeswereof-

feredmoneyjusttostaywiththecompany.A 2008 report

statesthaiexecutivepayinthe top 100 UKcompanieson

theFinanciallimesStockExchangerosesevenpercentto

a median(mittlere,r,s)off:2.6m,whiletheFTSEdropped

23 percent.Soexecutivepaywassome 100 timeshigher

thanthemedianemployee'swageoff:25,000.Germany's

politicianswanttocapexecutivepayat 50 timestheme-

dianwage.A~cap~isanupperlimit.TheUSgovernment

prefersa figure:$500,000maximum.IthasnamedKen-

nethFeinbergas"specialmaster",or"payq:ar",towatch

overcompensation,orremuneration(thatistosay,pay),in

firmsthathavereceivedbailoutmoney.Andnewclawback

rules(Ruckerstattungsbestimmungenlrequireemployees

topaybonusesbackundercertainconditions.

SEEN RECENTLY...

T

hiS ad pfays with the

saying~neverkickaman

whenhe'sdown".Thesay-

ing probably comes horn

football,whereit'sunsports-

manliketokicka playerwho

hasfallenontheground.In

general,"kickhimwhenhe's

down"means"toadd bad

newstoanalreadyunfortu-

natesituation".("Johnhas

togiveuphiscompanyear.

Ihatetokickhirnwhenhe'sdown,buthisreportis late.")

Theexpressioncanalsobeusedwhenreferringtoaperson

or groupsof people ("kickherllhem when she'sIIhey're

down").Inthead,~them"referstoshares(Aktien).~Pick"

means"choose",or,morespecifically,"buy".Shareprices

goupanddownonthestockmarket(Börse),sothetextad-

visespeopletobuyshareswhenthepricesarelower.

~

Z

...

i=

z

greenshoots

(Pflanzentriebe;hier:HoffnungszeichenlYoung

plantsthatarejustslartingtogrowaboveground.

Inbusiness,thisreferstoearlysignsofaneco-

nomicrecovery.Thetermprobablydatesbacktothe

early19905,butagambecamepopularthisspring.

naycation

US(UrlaubaufBalkanien)Sayingno,or"nay".toava-

cation,usuallyduetolackofmoney.Variationsinclude

"staycation",a stay-at-homevacation,or"daycation",a

daytrip.Theoppositeis "yaycation",saymg"Yay(juhu.'l,

Icanaffordtotravel,thankstocheapf1ights!"

DeborahCapras

onwisewords

forwork

"I'mnotsure

whywebother

withtheup!"

"GenYandmy

generation-

theover-SO

babyboomers"

RobertGibson

onintercultural

issues

fanMcMaster

withEconomics

forAmateurs

"Ifyouhave

insurance,behave

asifyoudidn't"

"Thatfour-Ietter

wardis oneof

thosefour-Ietter

words"

MegEngelmann

withteachingtips

andtrends

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