ptioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> business news from the capital region. this is "washingto business report" with abc7 national corrpondent rebecca cooper. thanks for r joinining us once again this week for a lookt buness and finance here in the washington region. ththis weeeek, t controversysy continues. rush limbaugh's rnat against a a georgetown college student. we will cover that in our roundtable segment. first,t, the news that investors have been iting for. this time, some in encouraging employment numbers.

will this meanan more money for working americans? for that, we turn to fortune mazine dubbing the ceo kililler for blowing up corporate leaders out of the saddle. shshe is considered one of thee nation's l leadi experts on corporate g governance and compensation. nell minow thanyou for joining us on "wawashingtgton business report." you have been making a nameme for years as someone who defendsds the rights of shareholders. here we are coming out of a recession and so many of the things you talk abouout are still going on. what is your take a about the gap between ceo pay and the rest of those who work for thohose companies? >> this is how the 1% get to be

the 1%. the big changerom 25 years ago whwhen we had more parity between the average wororker anand the ceo is thehe explosion in ceo pay which h is the biggest destabilizing factoror in our economy today. when you talk about people who make millions of dollars, a c o is not one who is paid for t their perfornce. e ceo just keeps going up no maer what. wewe just released a report of ththe number of ceo's who r received over $100 million inn s severance packckages since the year 2000. >> you said that wou be an awakening for americans to start lolooking at governance, ceo pay and how the boards were perfming. we saw this mass movement,t, the prototesters calliling out the 1%.

what really caused this widespread movement? >> after enron worldcomm we had these very satisfying moments of ceo'sed off to jail but we did not see any adveverse consequences of falling th meltdown on wall stet. there was no sense of justice after that. is businesses f fail, we care out what happens to people if businesses fail, we care about what t happs to people. we did not see accountability this time. >> you or s someonehat members of congrgress look to at the white house. yoyou were brought in shortly after the bailout to try to advise the treasury of what they needed to do next. they brought in ken feinberg.

are you satisfied with the steps that he been taken? >> i think they have done some good things and some not so good thgs. the dodd-frank legisislationon gives shareholders a vote on pay. it was interesting to me at there were about 50 plants that the shareholders voted against. companies have made some changes. there has been n a little bit of progress there. >> i w would say that is a lot of progress given where we were. >> the e idea thahat shareholdeders should be able e to throw out directors at they do n not like. you u do not hav to get aa majoririty vote in ordeder to serve on the board. >> you also made the point to shareholders saying that you canan have a all the corporate governance rules ithe world but until shareholders start

exercising the rightthathey hahave it is not going to ma a difference. >> most of the shares are he by interdiaries -- mutual fundand pension funds, and they have their own c conflicts of interest. ey arere not paid any extra. i ththink that is where the real problem is. >> what brought you dthis you weren'educated lawr. you cocould've worked for big company -- you were an e educated lawyer. > i really ke to try to make things b better. i likeo feel like item on the siside of the good d guys.. this onene was irresistiblble. i workor a really cool guy working for the deawere -- f threagan administration. therere is nothing more fun than telling the truth to ovepaid ceo's. >> youake such a statement.

you are a tiny woman and you walk into a meeting and you really rattled t these guys. tell our viewers about some memorable moments at meetings -- >> one of my favorites was that i asked the board of directors to get up and explaiwhy the stocock was a bad investment. ey s said why would you say that? i said none oyou bought any stoc i said what am i misissing? they did not like that at all. the company y later went out of business. another compmpany -- i asked each board member to g up and explain why they were not inindependent. one of themm was a an investme banker, , a lawyer, and in insider. >> we only have a minute left. since e you enjoyedd making companies uncomfortablecall some out that t are in the local

area. one of the os you have investigated icapitatal o. what are some that you think need to take a harder look at ceo o compenensationon? >> i think the wasashingtoton area is better than the average. the citities that have clusters of bad companies tend to be new york, chicago, some in california. they are very inbred.d. you see the s same directors over anand over.r. washingt does pretty well. >> yourake on the jobs report? we have s seen some encouragiging signs. even peoplple who have given up our back in ththe job pool. do you think it is going too mea more money for the average amamerican worker? >> i i think it will buy it shouldd nonot me more money for the c c o.

>> i always enjoy talking consrnation amonong corporate ceo' coming u next, our small business spotlight the story of a sweet success. how did this small colorado town geget through tough economic times? freight rail. it attracted large companies, like vestas. we built four factories to make turbine blades towers, and generators. creating over seseventeen hundred jobs. then suppliers, stores more companies followed, creating more jobs. economists call that the ripple effect. i call it the freight rail effect. freight rail connects every corner of america, bringing jobs and economic growth along for the ride. visit freightrailworks.org. [ male announcer ] this was how my day began. a little bird told me about a band... ♪ ♪ an old man shared some fish stories... ♪ ♪ oooh, my turn. ♪ ♪ she

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>> welcome back. the hospitality y sector is onef our favorite business categegors becacause it contains large ounts of personality and a great number of interesting dishes. sticky fingers, a following f for its vegan-baked goods.

doron petersan founded the businessn a basement storefront and now her products are distruted throughghout th region. thank youou foror joining us. you are makg heaeadlines. you have a new cookbook out of that is 100 supersecr vegan rerecipes. i used d thisis as an excuse to go to your store. you had to pve to me that a vevegan cupcake could competete, and they aremazing. what do ople do notnot unrstand about eating vegan? >> first and foremost, weollow baking rules a and we work on replacing the ingredients that are eggs dryand traditional butters with ingredients that are healthy and tas equally

good. it is about the way we approach the recipes and exchanng key ingredients. >> i did a story abobout bill clinton being a vegan now. i did not even fully understand. what are the dosos a don'ts o this lifestyle? >> i do n know if i know all the rules, but the general gist of it is you omit animal produc from your diet. peop whoho are taking it to the level of a lifestyle they are not wearing leather or using soap. there are some oils -- i do not even fully understand itit. in your " book, you h have all different kinds of recipes. tells how you grew thisis. you started out in a basement. >> we started out in a tiny

basement. you had to know where we were i order to get their. the people who were seeking out products without eggs and dairyry in them could find us. but the general public were not going toto go on a crazy kind for something that may or may not be ok tasting. we expanded our businesess and grew in columbia heights in washington, d.c. >> of the whole neighborhood is growing. you still have your bakery that has the essenence of the columbia heights neighborhood. tell us about "cupcake wars." a vegan cupcake could win. tell us about that. >> i love the reaction. it has the same ingredients than any other baked good.

there is chocolate sugar flour. we just do not use the eggs and dairy. we make sure ware using high levels of -- i'm sorry vanilla. we use a lot of freshh ingredients. i love it when people are shocked. >> fromom a marketing pererspective how did you get on the show? >>hey actuallyly approached us. they were seeking out aa vegan bakery. we thoughte would try our hand and wewe 1. we were extremely excited. the bakery went crazy that weend. we had lines o the door and people calling in. itit was the same thing over r and over aga. "are the thahat good?" >> i it is always fun to find sobody who has found a niche

an really excelels. thank you for joining us. coming up, the busess lesso from rush limbaugh. the business roundtable. that is next. stay with us.

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or roll over an old 401(k). so who's in control now, mayans? >> w welcome back. washington often sves as the crossroads between business and politics. federal policy about insurance coverageor birth control. we are going to be taking up the

issues on our roundtable to see what we can learn from the rush limbaugh controversy. matt smith is ceo of the smithgifford advertising agency, and tim mak is from politico. what is the l lesson from a all of this that we were watching? " social marketing. social marketing and the ability to voice your opinioin a massivee sca i think is going to be bigger -- sococial marketing spending is up this ar and will be up dramatically because that is where people are. this the people anpportunity to voice theheir opinion. >> wewe have seen other writers talk abo this saying that t it was the build up. no we e up to 45 advertisers pulling out of the show. cocompanies like netflix are getting hammered day after day

on twitter whendoing thesese announcements. > that is completely right ababout social media and socicial networking creating an opportunity for people to get angry and tition for these advertisers to leave. that has become very polititical. groups have been togetherbanded together to advocate on this situation. >> give your advice to a client. i am skeptical about p pullingng out because he reaches a bigger audienence than any other radio personality in the country. 'b' his followers are more passionate about rush limbaugh than those who do not like him. 'c' i would say this is all going to blow over and go away, but his listeners are still going to be there. why should a client pull out?

>> if you areeciding that you want to stay w with him, you are eliminating a lot of your market. you are a mattress store. why y do you need d to m make a political statement? yeyeah i think wn youu endorse a guy like rush, you are indndoors inin that product. as a sponsor, youre s saying i indoors what he e has to say. right now, because of this, yo are agreeing w with h. if you are one of the big companies -- >> whether or not, your cuomerare -- >> whether or not you lilike it, yoyou are getting involved in politics. what h has happened is companies that are staying are now in politics. >> we saw politicia trying to

ay outut of it. rick santorum said it is ok to be outrageous on a radio show. what is the take away that business leaders are watching? >> i think thehe big message here is that conservative talk radio is much more influentialhan liberal talk radio is for the left. rush limbaugh has much more influence. you will not see republican politicians publicly repudiate rush limbaugh. >> not everyone would eveven know. it was also the outrageouess, how far he e went day after day after day ung these words. my jaw dropped when he said -- it got kindd o of creepy. what do you s to advertisers in terms of hohow to get outut gracefully and not antagonize

some of the people -- >> you can reach those people e in other ways. by almost look at it a lile bit -- i go back and look at it and say he knows exactly what he is doing.. he stepped on the third rail, rther than i think he thought it was going t to go. he is kind of book coming -- we were not talking about him a whole lot. "i will goining to stick a needle in someone's i.i." now we are talng abobout him. >>the presess reporting that sleep train is one of the advertisers that once back on the show. they did not comment. dodo you think there are people regretting leaving >> rush is very influential with his audienc the people that areoyal to him -- if ruslimbaugh says go

by this mattress. >> i think it is a difficult choice for advertise. i w a website that wanted to recocommend. i found one called econsultancy. one of the editors number one sson from all of this is if you are going to apologize apologize. i covered this story all week. on monday, he me back on and slammed them all over again. he made it souound like she was a member oal qaedada majoring in women's studies. was a good apology? >> he is a powerful person among ople who listen to him.

it is diicult for him to saddle up and say i a sorry without adding a caveat. >> he also makes thpoinin this artrticle that it is going to hurt some advertisers more quickly than oththers. you mighforget about this by the time you need a new vuum. netflix -- onon the other hand, women buy y vacuum's. >> sari, netflix. i am a hulu + girl nowadays. a loof lesessons to be learned from rush limbaugh. thanyou for staying with us. stick around after the break. we have the number of the week. 0.75.

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>> our number of the week -- 0.75 i is about shrinkage. the financial kind. the average u.s. household net worth declined three-quarters of a percent in 2011. the value of assets minus liabililitie almomost as s bad as the george

costanza kind. we hope to see weight loss programs can be expensive. so to save some money, i just got the popular girls from the local middle school to follow me around.ro ew. seriously? so gross. ew. seriously? that is so gross. ew. seriously? dude that is so totally gross. soross...i know. there's an easier way to save. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more.

[ male announcer ] if you believe the mayan calendar on december 21st polar shifts will reverse the earth's gravitational pull and hurtle us all into space which would render retirement planning unnecessary. but say the sun rises on december 22nd and you still need to reti td ameritrade's investment consultants can help you build a plan that fits your life. we'll even throw in up to $600 when you open a new account or roll over an old 401(k). so who's in control now, mayans? [ male announcer ] this was how my day began. a little bird tolme about a band... ♪ ♪ an old man shared some fish stories... ♪ ♪ oooh, my turn. ♪ ♪ she was in paris but we talked for hours... everyone else buzzed about the band. there's a wireless mind inside all of us.