Ray Irani
CEO of Occidental Petroleum, where share value fell by 22 percent for 2008. Yet, the board of directors paid Irani a whopping $60.5 million for his “superior performance.” Of course, his performance must not have been as good as 2007, when he received $77.6 million.

For comparison, let’s look at:

William Crenshaw
CEO of Publix Super Markets, Inc., a grocer that posted a 4 percent increase in sales ($23.9 Billion) in 2008, while other grocery firms trended downward. Because of the recession, Crenshaw asked the company’s board not to increase his pay. Oh, Crenshaw’s 2008 pay?–$795,466.

It appears to me that something is wrong with this situation–no one person is worth $60, $70, $80 million in annual pay. This is especially true when their companies have performed poorly.

I guess it must be all right though, since our Treasury Secretary said the government should not be involved in compensation issues at the big “bailout” banks. Apparently, Mr. Geithner only wants to control auto industry compensation.

Am I the only one that becomes infuriated over this stuff?