hank paulson

Why Barney Frank and Chris Dodd's plan to regulate executive compensation makes economic sense.

Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson spent the first half of this week warning us that the executive compensation regulations proposed by congressional Democrats will appear "punitive" and scare financial institutions away from participating in the federal bailout. The fact that Paulson has now given in should please, among others, Congressman Barney Frank, who spent the week arguing that such regulations were an issue of fundamental fairness. In Frank's words: "I don't want the federal taxpayer to be at risk for their bad debt and then the guy who incurred the debt gets tens of millions of dollars on the way out the door.''