In the real world, failed CEOs would pay a price for their failed actions. On Wall Street, results are meaningless for so-called business leaders. How much longer can such behavior be tolerated?
Even as the nation's biggest financial firms were struggling and the federal government was spending hundreds of billions of dollars to save many of them, the companies as a group were boosting the perks and benefits they pay their chief executives.
The firms, accounting for more $350 billion in federal bailout funds, increased these perks and benefits 4 percent on average last year, according to an analysis of corporate disclosures filed in recent months.
