At first blush, the president-elect seems to endorse the idea of curbing excessive pay. Obama in March called for a "shift in cultures of our financial institutions and our regulatory agencies" in a speech at Cooper Union in New York. Among the changes Obama advocated was "to realign incentives and the compensation packages so that both high-level executives and employees better serve the interests of shareholders," according to a transcript of the speech.

"The environment is certainly ripe to push for more meaningful reform," says Michael Garland, the director of value strategy at activist pension fund investor CtW Investment Group. "People are disgusted not only by the level of pay, but also by the perverse incentives that our current pay system has fostered.

So, will Obama act on executive pay reform or only "hope" the problem fixes itself? It is a politically opportune time for action, but personally - despite my strong view expressed on this site that CEO pay is almost always too high - I hope Obama stays out of it.

I think the government has enough to deal with right now - lawmakers should stop showboating with vanity hearings and stands on steroids and CEO pay (to name just a few). Shareholders, not Obama, need to curb CEO pay.