Is high pay still worthwhile?

Can you imagine that people driving the financial sinking but they can still escape with a bag of gold? It’s time to take a closer look at pay and severance packages for CEOs at investment houses, banks and mortgage lenders, who perversely stand to benefit from the public's largesse.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, today reversing his position, said he would accept limits on executive compensation in his proposed $700 billion rescue plan for the banking industry after an outcry from lawmakers. The remarks were a shift from comments yesterday, when he said introducing limits on pay would impede getting the fund started. Both Democratic and Republican legislators have insisted on some restrictions on compensation in return for the government buying devalued assets from financial companies.

Don’t forget that Mr. Paulson is former chairman of Goldman Sachs. Paulson received an $18.7 million cash bonus for the first half of 2006, and in 2005 he was the highest paid chief executive officer on Wall Street, reaping $38.3 million in salary, stock and options. He had also accumulated 3.23 million shares of Goldman's common stock worth $492 million, plus restricted shares worth $75.2 million and options to purchase 680,474 shares, according to a Goldman regulatory filing on July 2, 2006.

I believe in his mind, the investment model is and should be a win-win model for both broader economy and the genius making contribution to. This place used to be the highest average IQ area in the world and they are deserved high pay. But time changes, golden ear fades, it’s time for them to remodel Wall Street and even their compensation package. People understand pay for performance, for success but for failure-- that's the American dream.