Gone are the days when executives would enjoy bountiful compensation packages and indulge in worldly pleasures without bothering about the fate of their companies' earnings. As the policy makers are busy finding solutions to the ongoing financial turmoil, the compensation issue has come to the limelight once again. Pay pressure boils over, especially with Citigroup's recent efforts to go ahead with the purchase of a corporate jet for $50 mn and former Merrill Lynch CEO, Thain's $1.2 mn redo of office. There is a widespread belief that the current financial fire was ignited by the greedy compensation packages being handed out at the investment banks and financial services firms. Even those corporates, once considered the symbols of Wall Street, have signaled the end of exorbitant compensation practices. The US government's bailout package, coupled with unrelenting pressure from shareholders, is forcing corporate boards to make their disproportionate executive compensation programs more shareholder-friendly.

The Analyst Magazine, Executive Compensation, Economic Policy Institute, US-based Research Organization, Securities Exchange Commission, SEC, Global Economy, Troubled Asset Relief Program, TARP, National Economic Council, Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, EESA, Economic Crisis.