Now that General Motors is on better financial footing and the automaker's initial public offering of stock is behind it, CEO Daniel Akerson is reportedly seeking to have government restrictions on executive pay eased.
A new report from pay czar Kenneth Feinberg looks at compensation practices at 17 banks that received federal bailouts, and it's not a pretty picture: The banks made an estimated $1.6 billion in "ill-advised" payments.
No one knows more about putting a price on human suffering than Kenneth R. Feinberg. The new claims administrator for the $20 billion BP oil spill compensation fund has spent 25 years finding a measure of justice for victims of disasters from Vietnam to 9/11.
We all know the deal: Big firms which got government bailouts and haven't paid back the money are supposed to be subject to pay restrictions. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac both borrowed tens of billions, and haven't repaid it yet. So how is it that their CEOs will make eye-popping sums for their work in 2009?
