Executive pay up 5.7% last year -- huh?

Gas prices are increasing your cost of living and your retirement portfolio has probably been a poor performer of late, with the stock market down year to date following an unremarkable 2007.

But you'll be happy to know that top executives are making more money than ever. An ExecuNet survey of 1,098 business leaders found that executive compensation increased 5.7% over the past year, and is expected to grow an additional 6.2% during the next twelve months.

Doesn't that pretty much expose the whole "pay-for-performance" paradigm as a total fraud? I mean, how can the value of companies, on average, decline more than 5% while the average pay increases more than 5%? All that's happening is that a larger chunk of shareholder wealth is being siphoned off each year and, if the ExecuNet survey is even close to being accurate, it has absolutely nothing to do with performance.

The only solution is improved corporate governance that comes with more active shareholders voting their proxies with the "corporate raiders," who work to unseat the directors who have allowed the shareholder democracy to become a complete joke.

Check out Carl Icahn's latest blog post for more information on corporate governance and how it can be improved.