I agree in a sense that the government has no say as to how much anybody gets to be paid.. However currently things are going out of hand and companies need to be held accountable. They need to control their expenses, and work with everyone to get out of this mess.

The worst part about Madoff and what the general public views as "Wall Street Corruption" is the ensuing regulation that will prohibit growth. It is now OK in popular opinion for the government to limit pay and decide which companies will stay in business and which won't...This is FAR, FAR worse than the limited number of corrupt individuals on Wall Street. What about the corruption in government?

If the banks weren't surviving on government money, they would have every right to complain.

However, since the feds are the only thing keeping the execs employed, they also have the right to dictate the terms of the feeding trough provided by the taxpayers.....

Which is worse? Bernard Madoff or bank executives? Madoff's deeds were illegal and unscrupulous. The deeds of bank executives receiving $100's of million in bonuses from the bail-outs given to the banks by the government is legal and unscrupulous. In both cases, there was and is little or no regulation either by the SEC or their respective Board of Directors. Unfortunately, rescuing the megabanks has done nothing to rescue the credit markets for business, nor has it encourage these banks to compete for business. It has enpowered these banks to buy more financial institutions and exercise enormous control over the accessibility to credit and the money supply, due to their demand for both greater collateral and cash flow. A destructive irony in progress!

Madoff has done the nation a favor by taking money out of circulation he has reduced the threat of inflation . However since the rich who lost the money to their buddy Bernie, are not able to spend it which causes lost jobs which in turn reduces inflation. Since Bernie has brought a lot of money to the US from foreign investors he has helped the balance of trade,reducing the trade deficit. Consequently in this topsy turvy world Maddof may soon be praised by economists and Soros for Bernies positive influence on the US economy.

When someone earns huge amounts of money, they make commitments for mortgages and taxes on multiple houses, private school, staff and donations to charity. If someone's salary is cut from 28 million to 500,000, while he/she wouldn't be "poor," he/she would likely be in foreclosure and staff would be losing their jobs, and it is likely that the charities he/she supported would still prosper. That being said, I still think limits on salaries that can be earned while working for a company receiving gov't bailouts could still be in place, but I think $500,000. would be a hardship for most of the large companies' executives.

I made an error in the previous post. "...It is unlikely the charities would prosper..."

Think of it this way, without the bailout money they would take home a pay check of 0$ and their companies would go under. If you want the bailout money then your pay is limited, to be honest we should not care what their prior commitments for housing and other items was. Don't take the bailout money and you can pay yourself whatever the board agrees on.
Simple as that.

How about a law that states any compensation, income and stock options, for publicly traded companies above $500,000 (set to the 2009 consumer price index,) must be approved by the stock holders. The Boards of too many company's have been allowing outright theft for too many years! Do what I do, and learn to trade the forex. You don't need to rely on any investors. Do it yourself! If you don't know how to trade, get a free $100,000 forex trade simulator account at http://forex-currencyexchange.com click the link at the top left corner, if I remember correctly. It will take you to a sign up page where all you have to do is give your name and email. You can then start practicing trading.

Dont worry about exec salaries. Execs dont live on their salaries, they live on interest from the millions they earned (stole) in the past.