Here’s a great article in Fortune explaining the mess behind the mortgage meltdown: Chaos on Wall Street

More and more people are calling for limits on excessive CEO compensation. Obama has made it an issue in his campaign, and stockholders are also starting to agitate for change. Here’s a snippet from an AP article from April 12, 2008:

Timothy Smith, a senior vice president at Boston-based Walden Asset Management, nearly pulled off a “say on pay” resolution at Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s annual meeting Thursday. The proposal garnered 43 percent of the vote, despite strong recommendations for its rejection from Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein and the investment bank’s board.

“To us it appears that Wall Street has a severe rash, to which its boards, made up of corporate members, respond ‘you scratch my back, and I will scratch yours,” said Smith, whose firm owns 65,000 shares of Goldman Sachs.

No kidding. It’s just a good ole boys club up there at the top, where this small elite works to keep money for themselves; to heck with how many people they lay off. Read more