Other Pay Hearings We Need

While the government continues its fixation on Wall Street pay by making comments about the anticipated $100 million dollar pay package for Citigroup trader Andrew Hall ... other outsize compensation packages go ignored.

Perhaps we need to take the super size pay targeting to other professions as well .. I'm thinking:

Baseball players:  Look at these yearly salary stats.   $27 million for Alex Rodriguez?   $16 million a year for Rafael Furcal?    $15 million a year for Chan Ho Park?     And oh yes, many of these guys play in stadiums funded by tasty tax breaks that aren't all that much different than government bailouts, right?

Entertainers: Live Nation paid Jay Z $150 million dollars and $120 million to Madonna.   This is before they generated a dime of earnings for the company.   And these entertainers often entertain us in the same stadiums and arenas that get ... you guessed it ... generous tax breaks!

Politicians:  It's agreed most high-level Washington officials could make more in the private sector than the public one during their tenure in DC, but what about some of their huge post-Washington paydays?   Ex-Presidents and their top staff often make hundreds of thousands of dollars per speech, million in book advances, etc.   Aren't these men and women really making too much money off of public service?

Okay, okay I am being facetious.

I don't think we should hold any hearings on executive compensation or baseball compensation or any kind of compensation.   If people want to pay those amounts, let them do what they want.   They will either win big or lose big.    And while I know that there is going to be little support for his compensation and its politically and popularly adverse to defend it ... consider that at least Hall actually made money for the firm before they paid him...and maybe Citi can now pay back some of the TARP they took from the money he made for the bank.

I'd take that over a billion in tax breaks for a new baseball stadium any day.