DISTURBING, BUT SATISFYING - AT 8:22 A.M. ET:  We are free enterprise types here, but even we have our limits.  The news that the federal government will regulate the "compensation" of senior executives in companies that received government bailouts makes us uneasy.  You wonder where this is going:

WASHINGTON — Responding to the furor over executive pay at companies bailed out with taxpayer money, the Obama administration will order the firms that received the most aid to slash compensation to their highest-paid employees, an official involved in the decision said on Wednesday.

The plan, for the 25 top earners at seven companies that received exceptional help, will on average cut total compensation this year by about 50 percent. The companies are Citicorp, Bank of America, American International Group, General Motors, Chrysler and the financing arms of the two automakers.

Some executives, like the top traders at D.I.Y., will face tight limits on their pay. In addition, the top-paid employees at all the affected companies will face new limits on their perks.

Uneasy, yes.  And yet, I cannot deny the touch of a smile that I experienced when reading the story.  Joseph Kennedy Sr., the founding father, once said that all businessman are bastards.  Well, all businessmen aren't bastards.  I've known some very fine managers who perform with distinction.  But some businessmen definitely are, and we have a sad crop of them today.

Some of these "executives" have no sense of shame, no sense of loyalty, no sense of leadership, and no respect for what a free market really means.  It means competitive free enterprise, not legal stealing.  Some of these "talented" men (and a few women) have actually added very little to their firms, but have taken bundles in "compensation," often arranged by the friends they put on boards of directors.  (There's a new book on Hollywood that points out that many media "moguls" aren't very moguls, and actually make little contribution to to the value of their "studios.")

The gap between the highest paid and lowest paid worker in a corporation is vastly larger in the United States than in any other country.  The executive excess here is doing enormous damage to the credibility of our economic system.  So, although I generally oppose most (but not all) government intervention in the marketplace, I have no sympathy for the latest targets.  They've had it coming for a long time.

The president of the United States earns $400,000 a year.  There's no shortage of applicants.

I know some readers will disagree with my view, but think of an employee who has given honorable service, is laid off in middle age, with kids about to go to college, and reads that the CEO of the company that fired him will get a $20-million "bonus" for "making the tough decisions," even though the company is failing.

Yuch.

October 22, 2009