This isn't "performance pay"

One of my favorite features of Paul Krugman's blog is his willingness to look back. In this case, he examines the ridiculous pay packages of CEOs from the perspective of the early 1990s:

Jensen and Murphy, 1990:

On average, corporate America pays its most important leaders like bureaucrats. Is it any wonder then that so many CEOs act like bureaucrats?

So we stopped paying them like bureaucrats, and got this:

The Price of Any Departure Will Be at Least $159 Million
By ERIC DASH
Merrill Lynch’s directors may be weighing E. Stanley O’Neal’s future, but one thing is already guaranteed: a payday of at least $159 million if he steps down.