Corporate Earnings

The WSJ contains a listing of America's highest paid CEO's.  As usually, more than a few are at companies where the overall bottom line has been less than rosy.  And two of the top seven are at oil (energy) companies like Valero and Occidental Petroleum.  Some of the numbers are in excess of US$100 million.  Pretty good pay in any market!

Some questions linger long after one becomes desensitized to reading such astonishing numbers.  How, exactly, does one lead followers who are earning maybe 1/400th of your pay?  How does a CEO gauge risk when his (and everyone on the top seven list is male) own circumstances are really unaffected by the outcome?  How do you justify what consumers pay for your products when so much obviously accrues to your personal advantage (or do you even try)?

I am not surprised at the numbers.  We see 'em every year.  Disgusted, maybe, but not surprised.