February 07, 2009

Throwing down the gauntlet on the villains of this downturn, President Obama has imposed a $500,000 cap on executive pay at financial institutions receiving federal bailout funds. Noting that American taxpayers are angered over "executives being rewarded for failure," he announced the limit ahead of next week's expected announcement on the future of the $700 billion financial rescue package.

Obama's move will help quell political backlash against the bailout after Wall Street paid out more than $18 billion in bonuses last year as the six largest firms mounted losses of $42 billion and received $90 billion from taxpayers.