The chances that Ken Feinberg is going to mine down far enough in the economy to set my salary are exactly zero, but the pay czar and his bosses in the current administration are becoming a little too controlling in what is now a purely political, punitive pastime.
Yes, some people’s earnings can seem obscenely high, and yes, some people were rewarded handsomely for doing things that almost trashed the world economy. Some things may need to be reset, and that will be a function of regulation and the marketplace.
But it’s now to the point where even the established regulators in DC, at Treasury and the SEC and the Fed, are telling Feinberg that some people have to be paid more than his stiff limits. The government has to protect its interest in the bailed out firms, they’re saying, and salary caps will drive the talent to the unregulated competition.
In other words, the market will continue to set the real salaries, no matter how much the regulation hawks want them established by federal fiat.
