Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration says executive compensation must be better managed to prevent the sort of risk-taking that jeopardizes the economy. Gene Sperling, who advises Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, said Thursday the administration does not want to impose caps on executive pay. But he also laid out for the House Financial Services Committee a list of guidelines calling on publicly-held companies to link compensation to long-term performance, not short-term gains.

Academy award-winning actor Sidney Poitier told CNSNews.com that the salaries of CEOs everywhere, not just those of U.S. banks, should be capped at $500,000 per year. At the beginning of February, President Obama put a $500,000 per year cap on the salaries of bank CEOs as part of the $700 billion financial bailout. When asked if the salaries of CEOs in Hollywood should be capped at $500,000 per year given the current economic crisis, Poitier said the cap should not be restricted to just Hollywood or U.S. banks.

I guess I was hopeful on some level that our politicians here in America were different somehow from the politicians in other countries who spawned Hitler and Stalin and Mussolini and on and on...... ...I am starting to think I may have been wrong. What is going on now is nothing short of political terrorism, that can only destabilize and undermine our free markets. Take this news from Barney Frank, in Financial Week.

Funny how, after all the commotion about capping compensation on Wall Street, the argument against curbing big paydays ultimately comes down to this: you'll be sorry. Actually, we are sorry. We are sorry that we did not rein in the casino culture of Wall Street years ago. We didn't -- and look where we are now. I hate to break it to the bonus apologists, but scare tactics aren't working. Pay curbs are here for banks big and small. If, as you threaten, we lose the so-called "best people" on Wall Street, then so be it. If these are the...

WASHINGTON, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Call it the revenge of the bureaucrats. High-flying Wall Street executives have had their wings clipped by government officials who earn less than many junior bond traders after President Barack Obama on Wednesday capped at $500,000 the salaries of executives whose companies take U.S. bailout money. Obama and other Washington officials said the move was needed to keep the bailout palatable to ordinary Americans, but it also may have brought into the open long-simmering resentment among bureaucrats who have little sympathy for Wall Street's culture of lavish spending. Wall Street workers often view their outsize...

Wall Street and the business community gave a lukewarm response Wednesday to the US administration's plan to cap executive pay, fearing it may lead to a talent exodus and delay recovery in the finance sector. The reaction came after President Barack Obama announced that executives of finance firms taking government bailouts would have their annual salaries limited to $500,000 dollars, a move aimed at protecting taxpayer interests.