Question of the Day

From Barry Ritholtz's The Big Picture blog:

Who Were the Top 10 Most Over-Compensated Executives?

I’ve written about bank and Wall Street execs who got paid large, then bailed after they destroyed their firms.

• Lehman Brothers Chairman and CEO Richard Fuld Jr. sold nearly a half-billion –$490 million – from selling LEH stock in the years before Lehman filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

• Countrywide Financial (now owned by Bank of America) founder and CEO Angelo Mozilo cashed in $122 million in stock options in 2007; His total take is estimated at over $400 million dollars;

• Stanley Neal, who steered Merrill Lynch into financial collapse before it was taken over in a shotgun wedding with Bank of America in 2008, was given a package of $160 million when he “retired.”

• Bears Sterns (now JPM) former chairman Jimmy Cayne, rescued by a $29 billion Fed shotgun wedding to JPM, received $60 million when he was replaced;

• Fannie Mae (FNM) CEO Daniel Mudd received $11.6 million in 2007. His counterpart at Freddie Mac (FRE) Richard Syron, brought in $18 million. In 2008, the two GSEs were insolvent and forced into government conservatorship.

• Washington Mutual, Wachovia, Indy Mac ?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Here's an article by Barry Ritholz that calls for clawbacks from these overpaid CEOs when they make the "heads I win, tails you lose" bets with the firm's money.