There is an academic debate about this issue of alignment, as you point out, but the problem doesn’t seem serious in big banks. The paper doesn’t deal with the issues I raise, and, of course, my issues are the real reasons for compensation regulations, even if politically they have to stay sub rosa.

I don’t think corporations should pick up living expenses unless it’s in lieu of salary or wages. I don’t care how important the @#$@^&^s are: if they’re being paid more than a million a year, they can pay their own living expenses.

Last summer while financial corporate bailouts were the rage, I proposed a retroactive 25% surtax on all Wall Street annual incomes over $250,000 going back ten years when the parasites were slowly killing the host.

Less than a year later, just the opposite has happened with trillions of increased taxpayer debt shoveled into the derivative hell hole to keep up the appearance that the broken system is still afloat.

Stocks moving higher in the past three months only shows that the masters of the universe have confirmed that they’ll never pay for the damage they’ve done to the economy.

Besides allowing Welch to live there rent-free, GE picks up the tab for such additional necessities as fresh flowers, wine, laundry and dry cleaning services, a cook and wait staff, a housekeeper, and every other detail down to toiletries, newspaper and magazine subscriptions, even postage. GE also pays a portion of Welch’s dining bills at the exclusive restaurant Jean Georges, which is located in the building.