Executive Compensation and Government Regulation

The article by Joann S. Lublin and Scott Thurm in todays Wall Street Journal ("Behind Soaring Executive Pay, Decades of Failed Restraints") should be required reading in all American business schools and in all American law school courses on corporate law. It makes the point that with each new law attempting to control executive pay came "unexpected consequences," executive pay increased. Each law had exceptions for pay that the law makers felt was justified, and companies turned the exceptions into uniform practice, increasing pay.