Yes there is a cozy club of mutual backscratchers, but if the firms they work for are doing well, then they have, by definition, earned it. The other alternative is to legislate their salaries and perks, which I am opposed to.

The problem, is that they are NOT earning it, as you point out. Their bennies go up in inverse correlation to their performance. It's not up to me or the law to fix that, that's the responsibility of the stockholders. After all, it's their money that is getting ripped off.

As TB below points out, this imbalance in CEO compensation is not the cause of our financial troubles, and eliminating it will not correct our financial problems. What TB or his partisans will not admit is that it is evidence of the inherent corruption and decadence of the system. It isn't the cause of the problem, just another symptom of it.