Snow job. (Investment & Finance).

JOHN Snow, President Bush's choice to be treasury secretary, has a Ph.D. in economics and a law degree. What he doesn't have as chief executive of one of the nation's largest railroads is a track record of raising the stock price for shareholders.

Snow has been CEO of CSX Corp. since April 1989. Looking at his performance in the 12 fiscal years that he has been at the helm, 1990 through 2001, Snow managed to beat the S&P 500 Index just four times. And looking at every daily closing price between March 31,1989, and the week before last, and then drawing a trend line through those 3,455 prices, I found that CSX's stock price growth worked out to 4.8 percent a year.

That level was only slightly more than one-third the 13 percent a year growth of the Standard & Poor's 500 Index during the same period. What is more, an investor in the Index would have experienced only 54 percent of the stock price volatility of an investor in CSX.

One of the four times that Snow managed to beat the S&P 500 Index occurred in 2000, one of his very best years. Then CSX's 38.2 percent total return exceeded the negative 11.9 percent return on the S&P 500 Index by 50 percentage points. Perhaps it was that stunning year that convinced Bush that Snow was his man. If it was, too bad the president didn't check to see what has happened so far in 2002, where the total return for CSX has been a negative 18.9 percent.

And the stock's current price -- about $28 -- is almost identical to its closing price of 11 years ago ($28.125 on Nov. 1,1991).

As for compensation, Snow is clearly neither a pay sinner, nor a pay angel. For six years running, 1995 through 2000, he received no bonus, though he did get some consolation prizes in the form of $6.4 million of free shares of CSX stock. In 1997, Snow received a second and much larger grant of stock options, covering 700,000 shares.

According to proxy materials, those 700,000 shares were to take the place of any further option grants for the three years, 1998 through 2000. That agreement was honored in 1998, and Snow didn't get any new option grants. But what do you know, in 1999 he received options on another 290,000 shares and options for 301 480 shares in 2000. Then there is his pay for 2001. In mid-July, following a spectacular one-year run-up in the stock price of around 65 percent, Snow's grateful board gave him a special award of free shares worth $7.1 million and an extra-large stock option covering 800,000 shares. The combined present value of both those awards was $17.6 million, by my estimate.

It seems fitting that Snow hand back about half his free shares and half his option shares, now that he will not be staying until his normal retirement date and now that he will not have the time to effect a smooth transition.

CSX spokesman Jesse Mohorovic said that the company would have no comment on the subject.

Subsequent to Mohorovic's remarks, Snow said last week he will sell all his CSX stook holdings if Congress confirms his nomination and he will not accept a severance package he negotiated last year, potentially worth millions of dollars.