What a farse... they want to cap executive compensation at $400K. How many govt officials make over the $400K salary of the president? Do they have any idea of the bribery and crimes that would be committed? All these CEO's are volunteering to work for free through this crisis... thats not free... they are working for indemnification as lawsuits will likely consume what ever cash they made. BS
If you ask for a loan(or help of any kind) the person giving you money can frequently demand certain concessions. That is perfectly legal and capitalistic. It would be obscene to allow "golden parachutes" for executives that essentially driven companies into the ground and now want taxpayer help.
If you are an officer of one of these companies that needs rescuing then you don't deserve a huge (if any!) paycheck. If you think you do deserve it then get yourself out of this mess without tax payer assistance or quit and go find a new job with a company that isn't on the brink.
Back in the days when I worked for someone else, I would have got canned if I hurt the business, and I would not be given any other type of compensation upon my termination. These boards and CEO' are greedy and IMHO something needs to be done.
In defense of the limits, you have to take into account the many millions these jackasses collected year after year while running our financial system into the ground.
OK. This is NOT capitalist, but socialist. Nevertheless I do feel it strongly. I believe that too much income disparity is bad for american society. Its ok to be rich - there just shouldn't be a few rich and everyone else poor. I am in favor of keeping the GINI index from rising (a measure of social wealth inequality) any further. So, limit CEO pay to some arbitrary number, say 400x, pay of their lowest US salaried employee. Get some smart laywer to write the law to make it stick & avoid loopholes of holding companies, offshore companies, etc... Make it a board compliance issue. Can't make it on $5,240,000 a year? Boo Hoo. Try saving. Or perhaps you would like to make something that's actually of value so that you can - get this - give your employees a raise and a living wage for their work. Seems to me that once upon a time, this sort of thing was done and people in society just wouldn't permit someone to make ridiculous multiples vs everyone else. Henry Ford had it right, in retrospect. OK. No more young spartacist rhetoric.
But the banks are not coming to the government asking for help. It is really the government going to the banks asking for help (please start loaning money again). Don't the banks have most of the leverage here?