Here is an excellent article by Thomas Sowell. The problem I have with executive pay is not how much they are paid good performance, but rather how much they are paid for terrible performance. Based on my experience in Industry, I think performance should be evaluated over many years, not just one year.In the case of the recent failures of financial institutions, it is obvious that some CEO's who had departed with huge sums of money had left ticking time bombs that eventually blew up.

http://townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2008/11/26/ivan_and_boris_again?page=full&comments=true