Lawmakers take aim at CEO compensation (CNNMoney.com)

[eppur_se_muova]

High-profile former Wall Street CEOs and the head of the nation's largest home lender will testify before a Congressional committee examining the link between executive pay and the mortgage crisis.

Why were executives at the helm of some of the world's largest banks compensated so richly even as their industry was being pummeled by the mortgage meltdown?

Lawmakers will pursue this question Friday when the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hears testimony from two former Wall Street CEOs, Charles Prince and Stanley O'Neal, and the chief of the nation's largest mortgage lender, Angelo Mozilo.

At issue are the salaries, bonuses, perks and stock awards that the executives received as the companies under their leadership took enormous losses on bad bets related to mortgage backed securities. Calls for accountability have become increasingly louder as the housing market continues to deteriorate and homeowners across the country face foreclosure.
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more: http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/news/0803/gallery.ceo_compensation/?cnn=yes

[mac2]

1. Seems every institution in this country has their robbers.

Wall Street CEOs and home lenders are no exception. They knew it but didn't stop it until is has come to a crisis. Shame on Congerss and the Treasury Department. Wall Street monitors are to blame also.

[Captain Angry]

2. What a waste of time.

The government doesn't sit on the board of directors for the companies that did this. The board members decided how much they'd pay each other and the executives of the company.

The shareholders can have the board of directors removed for not meeting their fiduciary duties to protect the investment of the shareholders.

No executive will ever say, no, that's way too much money. If the shareholders elect and allow these people to remain on the board, they're stuck dealing with it.

Any plan that's put in place by Congress would be a mess. It would probably index the compensation to something, or even worse, just create a new method of payment that they're not tracking. "Nobody ever said I couldn't be paid in hookers and gold. Where is that written in the law?"

[rwheeler31]

3. The boards oked this crap. When will we know who?

[mac2]

4. They should go to jail for fraud.

[Double T]

5. Heavy regulation is required for executive compensation.

Robber barons must be taken down.....again!