CEO compensation is in the eye of the storm in corporate America. Larry Elison, CEO of Oracle took home $706 mn in 2001, a year when Oracle's shareholders got the least return. Does he epitomize the problems of corporate America's CEO compensation?

Jack Welch, the charismatic leader of GE and `the manager of the century' was back in the news when the details of his retirement package were brought out glaringly into public notice. Welch's severance package allows him the use of corporate jet, $80,000 a month Manhattan apartment, financial planning services, golf club memberships, theater and sports tickets, office space, so on and so forth. Welch offered to reimburse GE for the use of these facilities. But that did not stop SEC from launching an informal inquiry into the issue nor could it avoid the debate on `CEO compensation practices'.

The onslaught of corporate scandals and the list of balking CEOs has only added fuel to the issue of CEO compensation. For a number of decades, corporate America never bothered about the dollars its leaders were pocketing largely because everything was going on smoothly. But today, investors and regulators are in no mood to let by any inkling of unjust practices without an investigation.

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