Obama to Cap Exec. Pay for Bailed-Out Companies

clipped from www.nytimes.com The Obama administration is expected to impose a cap of $500,000 for top executives at companies that receive large amounts of bailout money, according to people familiar with the plan. Under new rules to be announced by the Treasury Department Wednesday, executives would also be prohibited from receiving any bonuses above their base pay, except for normal stock dividends. The proposed cap comes amid rising public fury about huge pay packages for executives at financial companies being propped up by federal tax dollars. Executives at companies that have already received money from the Treasury Department would not have to make any changes. But analysts and administration officials are bracing for a huge wave of new losses, largely because of the deepening recession, and many companies that have already been to the trough may well be coming back. “There will be time for them to make profits, and there will be time for them to get bonuses,” Mr. Obama said. “Now’s not that time.”

It's too bad you can't go back and apply this to executives of companies that have already received fed largess, but I suppose you'd run into some sort of ex post facto problems. Like Fry said on Futurama once, "A deal is a deal, even with a dirty dealer."

This ought to make the right people happy and the right people unhappy. It should also cut down on the number of companies just looking for easy money. Slap a requirement or two on it, and it seems a little less "easy."