Executive Overcompensation

Obermatt.com provides a service of evaluating the degree to which CEOs are over- or underpaid. The Economist recently had a good graph of both categories. Obermatt computes the actual compensation and subtracts the economic value added to shareholders by looking at company's financials and stock performance. By this measure, the late Steve Jobs of Apple was grossly underpaid, while Ray Irani of Occidental Petroleum grossly overpaid. We need more of such research and publicity to distinguish those who legally steal from shareholders from those who produce wealth for our society. This is not exact science, but close enough.