Wall Street Accountability

So, President Obama just announced a $500,000 pay cap for executives at companies being propped up by taxpayer (a.k.a., your) money from last fall's bailout bill.

Makes sense to hold companies to certain reasonable standards when its public money that they're spending, right?

Apparently they disagree. Check out some of the Wall Street reaction to Obama's order:

“That is pretty draconian — $500,000 is not a lot of money, particularly if there is no bonus."
James F. Reda, founder and managing director of James F. Reda & Associates

“If I didn’t pay [bonuses], the people were going to go. … These people didn’t choose to cure cancer. These people didn’t choose to do public service work… These people chose to make money.”
Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric

Really?

With today's news that almost 600,000 Americans lost their jobs last month, it's hard to feel sorry for corporate executives struggling to make ends meet on a half million dollars a year.

(And, just leaving aside the disputable argument that the "$500,000 is not a lot of money," Obama's executive order actually allows plenty of room for executives to accept bonuses, just not bonuses paid for with our tax dollars.)

What do you think? How do you think we should be keeping Wall Street accountable?