Feds Insist on Pay Cuts for CEO's and Executives

I recently read an article in US Today ( http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/fed/2002-09-11-mcdonough-ceo-pay_x.htm ) that contained several excerpts from a speech that was given by the New York Federal Reserve President, William McDonough. In his speech, he accused executives as having bloated salaries and that they were grossly overpaid. In addition, he said that their large salaries are difficult to justify. I totally agree with him! Many CEO’s are receiving salaries that far beyond what they deserve. For example, Richard Fairbank is the CEO of Capital One Financial, he is reported to have 5-year compensation package worth $448.58 million. His salary is absurd! While I think the idea of, “getting what you pay for,” may be true in some circumstances, I do not believe it is true with many of the over paid CEO’s. Perhaps a better way of paying a CEO would be to base his/her salary on performance, with bonuses and incentives for increasing revenue, decreasing costs, etc… I am curious about what you think about this topic.