Biglaw partner Jeremy Goldstein has a piece on why corporate directors deserve their hefty paychecks. Certainly, the downward pressure on these paychecks is coming from many directions -- from Dodd-Frank, from institutional investors with their say-on-pay votes. A manifestation of populism and deep frustration at our crap economy and the financial boondoggles that have made us all victims.
Over the past decades, we've seen the paychecks of working people stagnate, subsidized by easy credit, while the surplus value got allotted directly into the pockets of the uber -- and growing uberer -- rich.
But has anyone ever done a study to see how much more corporate executives have been making vis a vis the bankers? Arguably, at least corporate executives do productive things, like, um, run companies that make things and pay workers. The bankers, though?
One might even argue that the crowing of activist pension fund investors is a bit misplaced. They should be targeting not so much corporate leadership, but the titans of wall street.
