Government Has No Damn Business Ruling on Executive Pay

Top employees leave financial firms ahead of pay cuts Grass is greener where bonuses are sky-high By Tomoeh Murakami Tse and Brady Dennis Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, October 23, 2009 NEW YORK -- Even before the Obama administration formally tightened executive compensation at bailed-out companies, the prospect of pay cuts had led some top employees to depart. The administration had tasked Kenneth Feinberg, the Treasury Department's special master on compensation, to evaluate the pay packages of 25 of the most highly compensated executives at each of seven firms receiving exceptionally large amounts of taxpayer assistance. . . . At Bank of America, for instance, only 14 of the 25 highly paid executives remained by the time Feinberg announced his decision. Under his plan, compensation for the most highly paid employees at the bank would be a maximum of $9.9 million.

The bank had sought permission to pay as much as $21 million, according to Treasury Department documents. . . . Fe…