Leslie Dach Enjoys Life in a $2.7 Million D.C. Home

Thats $89,000 where I’m at.

Thats $89,000 where I’m at.

“Were the company to take these funds and put it towards employee health care, raising wages or supporting local economies, more American families might be able to afford a fraction of the luxury the Dachs’ obviously enjoy. “

That’s weird I didn’t see anywhere that Walmart was the one that paid for the house.  Is Walmart supposed to start taking back the money that their employees have saved up to be able to afford the things that they want.  Also since the house was only $900,000 more than their old house that money would amount to $.50 an employee.  I’m not sure that my life would be any better off with an extra $.50.  I could by an extra can of pop with it though I guess.

...these funds...

Um, dave, I don’t think “these funds” refers to the cost of the house. I believe “these funds” are what Wal-Mart spends for things like “corporate affairs and government relations”.

“No one has explained to my satisfaction the difference between a conspiracy and a long-range business plan.” ~ Teresa Hommel

Only $900,000 more ?

why dont any of you on here ever bitch and moan about your favorite companies doing the same thing?

“Um, dave, I don’t think “these funds” refers to the cost of the house. I believe “these funds” are what Wal-Mart spends for things like “corporate affairs and government relations”. “

That would make sense if it weren’t for their quote.
“Wal-Mart is growing more and more dependent on its public relations department, and Leslie Dach’s extravagant home is only one example. “

Since Leslie Dach’s home is one examples it would be logical to assume that that was part of what they were talking about. 

I’m just not totally sure what an exec buying a house has to do with anything.  Perhaps we need to have story every time any Walmart employee buys a house because if someone can afford a house they are clearly overpaid. 

“Only $900,000 more ? “

Yes 2.7 million minus 1.8 million equals .9 million or 900,000.

Only?

According to the bove article ,the home was bought in July. Interesting timing. A little bona fides from the WalMart facts site:re Leslie Dach.~~~Leslie A. Dach
Leslie Dach is Executive Vice President of Corporate Affairs and Government Relations for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. He is responsible for reputation management, public affairs, corporate communications, marketing public relations, the Wal-Mart Foundation, government relations, and sustainability.

Before joining Wal-Mart, Leslie was Vice Chairman of Edelman, a major global communications firm, where he led the Washington D.C. office, the company’s research, advertising, and corporate social responsibility consulting divisions and its global public affairs, crisis, technology, and healthcare practices.

Leslie has been active as a strategist in Democratic politics and worked in senior positions in a number of presidential campaigns, including as a senior advisor for communications for the Democratic National Committee in 2004 and managing the program at the 2000 Democratic Convention. He served the Clinton administration in a variety of project capacities, including special advisor to the National Security Advisor during the Kosovo conflict. ~~~~~~~~~~~~

ddrb,

“He is responsible for reputation management, public affairs, corporate communications, marketing public relations, the Wal-Mart Foundation, government relations, and sustainability.”

Gee, that’s almost as much responsibility as a ‘shelf stocker’, after all, they have to remember where the mustard goes!!

Just ‘class envy’ raising it’s ugly head again!!  The old, “How come he gets more than me?”!!

RDS: Put a sock in it.

WalMart has stated an increased i governmental lobbying presence by WalMart Governmental lobbying in the past few years,and an increasing reliance upon P.R. Coincidentally,a new book by Shedon Wolins has an interesting take on P.R. and democracy~~~~~~~:WalMart Watch states that WalMart is depending more and more upon its P.R. Department. Herewith is an excerpt from Sheldon Wolin’s new Book:"Democracy Incorporated:Managed Democracy and Inverted Totalitarianism"~~~~~~~~“Inverted totalitarianism,” a form every bit as totalistic as the classical version but one based on internalized co-optation, the appearance of freedom, political disengagement rather than mass mobilization, and relying more on “private media” than on public agencies to disseminate propaganda that reinforces the official version of events. It is inverted because it does not require the use of coercion, police power and a messianic ideology as in the Nazi, Fascist and Stalinist versions.

The genius of our inverted totalitarian system “lies in wielding total power without appearing to, without establishing concentration camps, or enforcing ideological uniformity, or forcibly suppressing dissident elements so long as they remain ineffectual. ... A demotion in the status and stature of the ‘sovereign people’ to patient subjects , from democracy as a method of ‘popularizing’ power to democracy as a brand name for a product marketable at home and marketable abroad. ... The new system, inverted totalitarianism , is one that professes the opposite of what , in fact, it is.

Among the factors that have promoted inverted totalitarianism are the practice and psychology of advertising and the rule of “market forces” in many other contexts than markets, the penetration of mass media communication and propaganda into every household in the country, and the total co-optation of the universities.  Masters of this world are masters of images and their manipulation. “ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To read a review on this book by Sheldon Wolins,go to Alternet. Posted today, Chalmers Johnson has done a superb review on this work by Wolins. Well worth reading the ENTIRE review.

It would make good kindling.

I suppose book burning would be the next logical progression.

...Leslie Dach’s extravagant home is only one example.

Let me lead you through this slowly, Dave, as your comprehension skills aren’t up to par.

Leslie Dach’s extravagant home is only one example of what? Of Leslie Dach’s extravagant salary, which is money Wal-Mart is spending for “reputation management, public affairs, corporate communications, marketing public relations, the Wal-Mart Foundation, government relations, and sustainability”.

I can’t speak for the MT but by my reading they are saying that perhaps that money would be better spend in other ways.

I hope our little chat has helped you, Dave.

Dave: Open the pod bay doors, HAL.

HAL: I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that.

“Leslie Dach’s extravagant home is only one example of what? Of Leslie Dach’s extravagant salary, which is money Wal-Mart is spending for “reputation management, public affairs, corporate communications, marketing public relations, the Wal-Mart Foundation, government relations, and sustainability”. “

BUt that is exactly my point.  Someone being able to buy a house isn’t proof that they make a lot.  Maybe he is a good investor, or already had money saved up from previous jobs.  Also $900,000 for an executive is not much money at all, and not all of his responsibilities fall within the realm of PR.  While a lot of you antiwalmart idiots feel that environmental sustainability is all about PR that is not the case.  Also while I understood the point they were trying to make, saying that the house is an example of Walmrart spending on PR implies that Walmart paid for the house and is either misleading or terrible writing, either of which is feasable for this site.

“...and is either misleading or terrible writing, either of which is feasable for this site.

Dave in
Friday, May 16 at 08:07 PM

For a WalMart worship imbecile Dave you obviously do not understand basic executive practice. Also, you really should learn how to spell if that is ‘feasible’. What a shame.

Speaking of bail outs and governance stepping in to subsidize the wealthy investment banker frauds…

“You could afford your house without the government if it weren’t for the government.”
Rush Limbaugh

Which impecile number is Dave?  I’ve lost track with SDV on his rants.

Hey, SVD, while you’re at it, can you correct *’s spelling, too?

* Initials are censored, but I’m sure everyone knows who I’m talking-about...

Which impecile number is Dave?  I’ve lost track with SDV on his rants.

mary in

Hey, bbrd, while you’re at it, can you correct Mary’s spelling, too?

Someone being able to buy a house isn’t proof that they make a lot.

Can you say “sub-prime crisis”, Dave?

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot. ~ Joni Mitchell

Doesn’t that prove my point?  Obviously, you don’t have to be able to afford a house to get a loan for it, or else we wouldn’t have that problem. 

I apologize for spelling one word wrong, SDV. I was unaware that it was better to lack content in your posts then it was to spell one word wrong.  From now on I’ll double check my spelling and say absolutely nothing in my posts so I can be just like you. 

Also please tell me what part of executive practices I do not understand.  I know in order to do that you would have to understand something yourself, but I have confidence that if you try hard enough you might be able to do it.

Dave: According to Potomac Flacks,Mr. Dach will not need to worry about paying off his mortgage.The downward spiraling fortunes and misfortunes of shoppers caught in the subprime debacle,will translate to upwardly ascending personal income for Mr. Dach as more of them begin to shop at WalMArt~~~~~~~~~~ From Potomacflak:September 24, 2006
Wal-Mart Lures Edelman’s Dach In-House With Big $$
Washingtonian’s Kim Eisler reports in the new issue that “insiders have been asking what it took for Wal-Mart to lure Leslie Dach (left) away from Edelman, [which] Dach cochaired with former Ronald Reagan aide Michael Deaver.” Dach left for Wal-Mart in July.

“Dach helped Edelman create political-style TV ads for Wal-Mart, claiming that the stores save the average household $2,300 a year.  Wal-Mart was so impressed with Dach’s enterprise that they asked him to come aboard.”

And at a handsome price.  SEC docs show that Wal-Mart gave stock worth more than $3 million, with options to buy more shares. “For every dollar that Wal-Mart stock goes up, Dach will make an additional $168,805,” Eisler reports~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Well,WalMart sure is helping Leslie save more and live better!

An executive getting stock option, Walmart has to be the only company in the world that does that.  Maybe the board of directors had read on here how the stock price was going down so they thought they could sneak one by him by giving him that much in stock. 

Also for anyone that missed this is from July.  Must have been a slow newsweek that an exec buying a house a year ago made the news on here.

Come on, Dave, you’re standing deep</i> in a hole of your own making.. You make no point, but you continue to try. <b>Stop digging!

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it. ~ Upton Sinclair

It’s not suprising that none of you have a reply other than to pretend like I’m losing.  Is there really any large corporation that doesn’t give their high level execs stock options?  I have yet to hear of one.  Most even have someone in charge of PR that makes pretty good money, and most give them stock options which is a good idea since it ties their pay to their performance since their stock will go up if they do their job well.  This is another story from nearly a year ago that the “media team” dragged up that really is a non story.  Wow execs can buy houses that peons can’t afford.  Where is the story there?  I would guess that every since major corporation has a PR person that can afford a very nice home.  The “media team” either needs to work harder or Walmart is doing a very good job of cleaning up their act if this is the worst thing that they can find about Walmart.

“...if this is the worst thing that they can find about Walmart.”

Dave in
Sunday, May 18 at 10:43 PM

Appreciate the admission Dave that you have been living in denial at fantasyland central.

WalMart- We must hire Edelman internet worship falsetto frauds and fakes to sing our praises from the PR ‘war room’.

Haha nice try twisting my words.  If hiring a PR person like every other company in newsworthy then Walmart is running a very clean business.  By the way how come you didn’t comment back about the increase of stores in the US , in the topic above this one, when you said they were reducing their US stores?  Don’t you hate not being able to think for yourself instead of having to rely on twisted numbers from sites like these.

right on dave

Haha nice try twisting my words.

You totally miss the point so if any of your words are being twisted it’s merely an attempt to help you understand, Dave.

Personally, I consider every dollar Wal-Mart spends on reputational damage control a victory for the Anti Wal-Mart Movement.

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”~ Warren Buffet

“Personally, I consider every dollar Wal-Mart spends on reputational damage control a victory for the Anti Wal-Mart Movement.”

I guess you have to take your victories where ever you can get them whether legitimate or not.  So what about the money that every other company spends on PR, who is that money a victory for? 

As for me missing your guys point, I get your point it just doesn’t fly since ALL COMPANIES spend a lot of money on PR.  If Walmart was the only one spending money on PR it would be one thing, but they are not.

If Walmart was the only one spending money on PR it would be one thing, but they are not.

Dave - all publicly-held companies have to spend some amount of money on PR, if anything, to communicate with their shareholders and other interested parties.

Obviously, Wal-Mart has to go “above and beyond” on their PR, chiefly because of these union-crafted negative PR campaigns.*

While I’m not sure if WM’s PR efforts are really working, the crowds I’m seeing at my local stores indicate that this “Movement” Ken embraces so much is becoming irrelevant in the new economy.

*Tesco will probably have to do the same thing, as one of the two unions campaigning against WM has now turned its’ online attention towards Tesco’s recent expansion in the Western U.S.

“ that this “Movement” Ken embraces so much is becoming irrelevant in the new economy. “bbrd~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~new economy?

“The financial crisis that we now face was created by design. It is intended to destroy the labor movement, crush the middle class, quash Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, reduce our foreign debt by 50 or 60%, force a restructuring of America’s debt, privatize all public assets and resources, and create a new regime of austerity measures which will divert more wealth to the banking and corporate establishment.”

This was months before the subprime meltdown in August 2007, or the more recent hike in food prices and oil prices. Their plan, blessed by business and the banks, was implemented step by step. The consequence was intended.” (Common Dreams,May ‘08.)Is this “new economy” to which you refer? A necessary step to dismantle government as we know it now? What Grover Norquist meant when he said “ We want to shrink government down to the size that we can drown it in the bathtub?” Disciples of Milton Friedman(Father of Free Market) and the Hoover Institute and its disciple Alan Greenspan?

“The financial crisis that we now face was created by design. It is intended to destroy the labor movement, crush the middle class, quash Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, reduce our foreign debt by 50 or 60%, force a restructuring of America’s debt, privatize all public assets and resources, and create a new regime of austerity measures which will divert more wealth to the banking and corporate establishment.”

Paranoid much?  Actually though most of those goals would be a good thing, other than the crushing of the middle class, and the diverting of more wealth to banking and corporate establishments (depending on where they are being deverted from, I’d be fine with them taking the money that had been flowing into the government and diverting it to private beusinesses since they are the ones that really grow the economy.)
All that being said, most of what has happened was cause by those buying houses and defaulting on their loans, and that was private citizens and not the government.  Also most banks wouldn’t risk going under like Bear Stearns in order to have all this occur, and the current crisis has caused the government to get bigger as they are putting more and more restrictions on lenders in order to prevent this sort of thing from happening again.

Dave:-I’d be fine with them taking the money that had been flowing into the government and diverting it to private beusinesses since they are the ones that really grow the economy.) Isn’t that ‘s whats happening over at WalMart,except the private businesses that are growing are in China?. ------------------------------------------------------------------June 26, 2007 | EPI Issue Brief #235

The Wal-Mart effect
Its Chinese imports have displaced nearly 200,000 U.S. jobs

by Robert E. Scott

China’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) was supposed to improve the U.S. trade deficit with China and create good jobs in the United States. But those promises have gone unfulfilled: the total U.S. trade deficit with China reached $235 billion in 2006. Between 2001 and 2006, this growing deficit eliminated 1.8 million U.S. jobs (Scott 2007). The world’s biggest retailer, U.S.-based Wal-Mart was responsible for $27 billion in U.S. imports from China in 2006 and 11% of the growth of the total U.S. trade deficit with China between 2001 and 2006. Wal-Mart’s trade deficit with China alone eliminated nearly 200,000 U.S. jobs in this period.

The manufacturing sector and its workers were hardest hit by the growth of Wal-Mart’s imports. Wal-Mart’s increased trade deficit with China eliminated 133,000 manufacturing jobs, 68% of those jobs lost from Wal-Mart’s imports. Jobs in the manufacturing sector pay higher wages and provide better benefits than most other industries, especially for workers with less than a college education.

China has achieved its rapidly growing trade surpluses by purchasing more than $1 trillion in U.S. Treasury bills and other government securities over the past few years in order to artificially and illegally reduce the value of its currency and thereby lower the cost of its exports to the United States and other countries. It has also repressed the labor rights of its workers and suppressed their wages, making its products artificially cheap and further subsidizing its exports. Wal-Mart has aided China’s abuse of labor rights and its violations of internally recognized norms of fair trade behavior by providing a vast and growing conduit for the distribution of artificially cheap and subsidized Chinese exports to the United States.

China trade and U.S. job loss

Exports support jobs in the United States, and imports displace them.  Thus, the net effect of trade flows on employment must be based on an analysis of the trade balance. This Issue Brief calculates the employment impacts of growing trade deficits by using an input-output model that estimates the direct and indirect labor requirements of producing output in a given domestic industry. The model includes 200 U.S. industries, 86 of which are in the manufacturing sector.

The job losses presented here represent what total employment levels would have been in the absence of growing trade deficits.

U.S. exports to China in 2001 supported 189,000 jobs, but U.S. imports displaced production that would have supported 1,190,000 jobs. Therefore, the $84.1 billion trade deficit in 2001 displaced 1 million jobs in that year. Job displacement rose to 2,763,000 in 2006. Growth in trade deficits with China has reduced demand for goods produced in every region of the United States and has led to job displacement in all 50 states and the District of Columbia~~~~Economic Policy Instit

(continued)On average, each of the 4,022 stores Wal-Mart operated in the United States was responsible for the loss of about 77 jobs due to Wal-Mart’s trade deficit with China in 2006.~~~~~~~~Robert E. Scott,EPI.(6/26/07

Now I have a question,when WalMArt purchases goods from China and Mexico,actually ANY foreign country,does WalMart purchase in U.S.Dollars,or does WalMart convert the U.S. Dollars into their (that country)currency first,and then purchase the goods?

...irrelevant in the new economy...

I agree with you, bb, on that point but I think it’s not only sad but temporary. Disposability, the life-blood of hyper-consumerism is about to become very expensive.

Years ago when the engine of the economy was the auto industry they used to say: “What’s good for GM is good for the country!” And it was true.

Now that we have devolved from manufacturing to a ‘service’ economy with Wal-Mart leading the way, we can proudly say: “What’sbad for the country is good for Wal-Mart!”

Ken V,

Can you explain why it is, that Toyota, Honda and other auto producers in this country are growing and building plants, while GM, Ford and Chrysler are going down the tubes and closing down plants?

((knock)) ((knock))

Hello? RDS? Is anybody home?

I’m talking about the ‘engine’ of our economy, not the auto industry specifically.

Ken V,

Oh, I thought you said, “What’s good for GM is good for the country!”, wouldn’t that mean that at that time, GM was the engine of the economy?  How is it that Wal-Mart is NOW the engine of the economy?  Maybe, because GM has gone down the tubes and Wal-Mart is riding the wave now!!  So, I guess you are saying that we should follow the example of the losers and shun the example of the winners, right?

As for how our economy is going, everyone with half a brain, knows that our ‘poor’ economy right now, is hinged on falling home prices because of the sub-prime loans, and the high oil prices, neither of which pertain to Wal-Mart!!  Wal-Mart has NO sub-prime loans and produces NO oil!!

RDS: WalMart is the engine of the Chinese economy,IMHO.

Many of the subprime loans were bundled and sold to foreign investors.~~~~~~~~ “Bank of China has confirmed it is holding $9.7 billion of securities backed by American subprime loans, the most of any Asian company. Two other Chinese banks, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and China Construction Bank have both reported exposure of a billion dollars each. Elsewhere in Asia, Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group has reported $2.6 billion investment in securities linked to subprime as has sixteen banks on Taiwan which hold a combined $1.2 billion of such securities.

However for the booming Asian giants, China and India, subprime may at worst turn out to be little more than an economic pinprick, say analysts. First, their direct exposure to the problem is small. Even in the case of the three Chinese banks their total $12 billion exposure to subprime is barely 6% of the $199 billion in private foreign securities they hold. Even if Bank of China were to write off its entire subprime exposure, none of which is considered a loss as of now, it would amount to only foregoing a little more than one year profits. The bank recently declared a 52% rise in first half profit to $3.9 billion and said it was provisioning $150 million to cover subprime losses. The Chinese government has also clarified that none of its $1.33 trillion foreign reserves hoard, the world’s largest, is parked in subprime debt.

The indirect effects of subprime, some fear, could be felt in the form of reduced capital flows. The initial aftermath of the subprime blowout saw some $2 billion of foreign portfolio investment being withdrawn from India.(Bini Thomas Financial Radiou.k.-"Subprime Not an Issue for China and India."~~~~~~~~~~~Merely a pinprick to the Chinese investors.

Once again your copy and paste was not pertinent to the discussion.  Nothing in the article discusses Walmart or the effect of the subprime crisis on OUR economy.

Dave: You are entitled to your own opinion. I disagree. So be it. However, if you wish to impose the criteria that only comments pertinent to the topic be posted, there would be few posts whatsoever on this blog,period....especially the spam.

“there would be few posts whatsoever on this blog,period....especially the spam. “

Yeah it would be terrible if we lost the spam on this site.  Also it’s one thing when the conversation gradually flows off topic, but you have the knack for posting random articles that have nothing to do with the discussion simply because they have the same word in the title as the topic does.  It’s starting to make me think that you just do seaches on a topic and post the first article that comes up.

Dave: And your knack of posting gradually flowing off topic nothings because you are random spam on this site and its would be terrible if you would actually post a topic you researched....

Yeah it would be terrible if we lost the spam on this site.

I dunno—maybe I should support the spam guys by visiting their sites to see what they are trying to sell…

Also it’s one thing when the conversation gradually flows off topic, but you have the knack for posting random articles that have nothing to do with the discussion simply because they have the same word in the title as the topic does.

You may be on to something, Dave...it’s either that, or when someone else is particularly close to debunking something, we get another one of *s long-winded articles slapped-up in the middle of it, all.

It’s starting to make me think that you just do seaches on a topic and post the first article that comes up.

I would have to agree with that—all indicators point to the fact that * hasn’t been web-surfing for a whole lot of years.

bbrd,

“I dunno—maybe I should support the spam guys by visiting their sites to see what they are trying to sell…”

Yeah, then you could ‘copy and paste’ what is said there!!  And, maybe then, you could link it up, by telling how you can buy that product at Wal-Mart!!  But, remember, the product is not as ‘good’, if it is sold at Wal-Mart!!

RDS,

You just gave me an idea................

“Dave: And your knack of posting gradually flowing off topic nothings because you are random spam on this site and its would be terrible if you would actually post a topic you researched.... “

I research what I post.  You think I just know the numbers that I post off the top of my head?  The difference I can put a sentence together on my own and post stuff related to the topic, where you post randed articles that you found because you googled a word to figure out what the rest of us were talking about.

...because you googled a word to figure out what the rest of us were talking about.

That, friends, is what some of us call a “keeper”!