Pigs At The Trough

From the New York Times:

WASN’T 2008 supposed to be the year of shareholder victory on the executive compensation front?

Multimedia

Interactive Graphic

Executive Pay: The Bottom Line for Those at the Top

A searchable graphic depicts the compensation and accumulated wealth of 200 chief executives for large public companies.

After all, tighter disclosure rules kicked in last year, and — the theory went — once companies had to shine a spotlight on their compensation practices, they were bound to make them better. Politicians, never loath to acknowledge the national mood — particularly in an election year — held several hearings about excessive pay.

But signs of sweeping change remain few. Once again, many — perhaps most — companies filled their proxies with a blizzard of words and numbers that did more to obscure their processes than to illuminate them. And most irksome of all, true links between pay and performance remained scarce.

Get the rest here:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/04/05/business/20080405_EXECCOMP_GRAPHIC.html