Cheat Sheet

I can hear the cries, "Socialism!" already, like completely unrestrained capitalism isn't what got us here. I say God bless Obama for inserting some common sense into this mess.

I can't believe that they people in the business of handling business did not do this themselves. Although there are contracts with some of these "professionals", this should not have to be the governments job. Apparently and unfortunately, someone has step in and do it other then those who should know better.

tavallai nailed it. In what bizarro world do you get paid more for destroying your company?

The salaries should DECREASE as the company's worth does. That would be the incentive for a CEO to do well by their employees and make long-term decisions.

as cyberwriter said, these goons won't do anything on their own. They're entitlement whores. Time to knock a few heads together and change the "business culture."

How about saying no bonuses until the company is making a profit and can repay the American people for what we have invested?

This has made my day: thank you, President Obama! After all, do you know how many jobs those extra millions could pay for? Everyone who makes multiple millions per year should look around and consider the number of ordinary middle-class salaries that revenue could pay for.

stock options, golden parachutes, and the like.
a salary gap will have no effect.
they will just get the money in other ways.

Watch carefully. We've impose IRS and other legal restrictions on executive pay, but they have found many ways around those. In fact, the tax treatment of CEO pay may have helped to inspire some of the excesses.

Few would argue with tying pay to performance. Many of us live with that and even welcome it; part of the problem has been that CEOs benefit greatly on the upside, but pay no penalty on the downside.

Still, if the cap really is a cap, it makes sense in these circumstances.

Junket to Vegas.....not pay taxes......what's the difference? Nothing. Both are unethical.

CEO salaries and bonuses are such a small amount($'s)
when you look at the 'stock awards packages' that are distributed to CEO's and other executives, directors and managers in any given year. These stock awards are like
stealing from the company and putting dollars directly into
their pockets-free and clear. All do to the compensation
boards appointed by the CEO's themselves. Where's the
oversight from the SEC and Congress?

When I was working as a corporate CFO I was once brought in as part of a management team to turn around a failing business. One of the first things we looked at and set limits on was executive compensation. In fact, the "money guys" insisted on such limits. Why isn't the federal government just as legitimate in imposing such requirements on companies taking federal bailout funds? I for one am glad to see Obama representing the "money guys" - you and me, the taxpayers in this country - in this way. It's not socialism; it's good business!

Obama's acceptance of tax cheats: now that's shameful. Issuing his ethics rules against lobbyists in his administration & then hiring a bunch of 'em while Gibbs stammers & stumbles : risible. The Lincoln emulator importing his personal chef from the Hyde Park manse 'cause chef knows how the prez likes his arugula dressed while dissing fat cat CEOs... I'm not feeling it.

The nearly $18 billion in bonuses paid out to TARP funded banks was entirely paid to the level below the top five to ten executives. If Obama was paying attention he would have found the Ken Lewis of BofA, Blankfein of Goldman, John Mack of Morgan Stanley, Vikram Pandit of Citi, Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan, Thain of Merrill and Stumpf of Wells all announced they weren't going to take bonuses for 2008. Their annual salary ranges from $600,000 to $1MM. Many of their direct reports also received no bonuses. The $18BN went to the traders, IBankers, MDs and was spread around. Overall, the bonus was only down 44% from the record 2007 payout and the sixth largest of all time.

This bill will do nothing to control year-end compensation overpayment. The new regulations sound good in a 30 second bit, but are totally ineffective.