Before anyone defends this as “capitalism,” remember these jerks are the reason we now have a fascist nationalization of the financial sector.
Well, the fascist part is that despite all of the executive compensation, they are still running to the government and demanding to be indemnified against the cost of their bad business decisions. As long as the market is allowed to properly punish them for misallocating resources, how much they spend on perks is between them and their shareholders. But once the government is brought in it becomes a taxpayer issue.
How would it be “capitalism” when they come to the government for a handout? Not that’s NOT capitalism, that’s THEFT.