Tweet [1]
Video of my testimony on Capitol Hill yesterday, talking about executive compensation (and the financial crisis) is here [2]. My part starts at 2:01:36 followed by William Black’s statement (interrupted by a vote) followed by Q and A. I’m very sympathetic to Black’s argument that there was looting but argue that the looting was enabled by the implicit government guarantee of Wall Street. The first two hours is a masterful performance by Kenneth Feinberg. He makes it look easy, despite the embarrassing Wall Street Journal article [3] that had come out that morning. Feinberg is able to deflect that criticism by pointing out that he still cut compensation. I think that misses the real point that the whole thing is ad hoc and includes negotiation, wheeedling, begging, and so on.