Let's get real. This may be a nation of laws, but contracts are not sacred, and employment contracts are less sacred than any. When Enron's executives destroyed the company, Enron's secretaries lost their pensions. When General Motors' executives failed to plan for the possibility that oil prices might go up...

Last year, four hedge fund managers took home over $1 billion each in pay.

Seeming pikers by comparison, CEOs of Fortune 500 companies received an average over $14 million, according to the AFL-CIO's Executive PayWatch. But some did quite a bit better. For example, former Bear Sterns...