From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch — Originally published Tuesday, Feb. 3

… Over the past three decades, a bizarre sense of entitlement has governed executive compensation.

… The notion that executives were special became so entrenched that today, many executives can’t understand why anyone would challenge it. This explains the why so many of them have a tin ear about public outrage.

There will be some form of cap on executive compensation in the forthcoming economic stimulus bill. That’s important, but the larger issue is the long-term trend in executive compensation, and that will require a shareholder revolt. Not all public companies — and surely not many on Wall Street — tie compensation to performance.

… A fairer system could include increasing base salaries and tying all deferred payments — stock options, bonuses and the like — to the creation of measurable, real value. Federal regulations should be crafted to limit boards from concocting bogus reasons to award incentives that aren’t earned.

It would [be] nice if we could legislate some humility, too, but of that we have small hope.