President Barack Obama on Wednesday imposed $500,000 caps on senior executive pay for the most distressed financial institutions receiving federal bailout money, saying Americans are upset with "executives being rewarded for failure."
The executive-pay move comes amid a national outcry over huge bonuses to executives heading companies seeking taxpayer dollars to remain afloat.
Fast Money viewers are equally outraged. Michael E. writes, "It seems that giving bonuses where there are losses is similar to giving a failing student, an A for effort."
The demand for limits was reinforced by revelations that Wall Street firms paid more than $18 billion in bonuses in 2008 even amid the economic downturn and the massive infusion of taxpayer dollars.
The pay cap would apply to institutions that negotiate agreements with the Treasury Department for "exceptional assistance" in the future. The restriction would not apply to such firms as AIG , Bank of America , and Citigroup, that already have received such help.
The president said the executive-pay limits are a first step, to be followed by the unveiling next week of a sweeping new framework for spending what remains of the $700 billion financial industry bailout that Congress created last year.
And that leads to our Reader Poll. So far, do you approve of the way President Obama is handling the banking crisis?
______________________________________________________
Got something to say? Send us an e-mail at fastmoney-web@cnbc.com and your comment might be posted on the Rapid Recap! Prefer to keep your comments private? Send those questions and comments to fastmoney@cnbc.com.
CNBC.com with wires
