Though I don't agree with everything (or close to everything) HuffingtonPost.com publishes, writer Jonathan Tasini helpfully reveals another way the $500,000 limit on cash pay for companies receiving very large amounts of bailout money is a sham - it doesn't include any stipulation about pensions:

...CEO pay isn't really where the big money is. It's in CEO PENSIONS. And the Treasury rules say NOTHING about pension benefits.

When Edward Whitacre, for example, retired as CEO of AT&T in 2007, he received retirement--drumroll, please--$161 million as a pension package---the third highest in U.S. corporate history--not to mention the $1 million-a-year he gets as a consultant to the company. According to The Corporate Library, some other "parting gifts" awaiting other CEOs include the $83 million (probably higher by now) locked in by Kenneth D. Lewis, the CEO of Bank of America Corp., which we learned yesterday spent $14.5 million to influence Congress and received $45 billion to date from the bailout bill.

President Obama is making headlines with his newly imposed limits on executive pay for companies receiving bailout money:

President Barack Obama on Wednesday imposed a salary cap of $500,000 for top executives at companies that receive large amounts of bailout money, saying that some executives were being "rewarded for failure," in part with taxpayer-subsidized money.

This is indeed an improvement over current rules that only restrict the tax-deductibility of executive pay for companies receiving bailout money to $500,000, but don't forget to read the fine print that is not being as well publicized:

Senior executives would be limited to $500,000 in total annual compensation, other than restricted stock. They would be able to cash in such stock only after the government had been repaid.

So, the $500,000 cap does not include stock rewards so long as they are not cashed-out until the government has been repaid and even this $500,000 in-name-only limit applies only to the companies receiving the largest amounts of money, referred to as "exceptional assistance" by the government.

For companies receiving smaller bailouts, the $500,000 compensation limit applies, but it can be waived if they fully disclose compensation terms and adopt a "say on pay" approach.

From Forbes:

Capital One Financial Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Richard Fairbank won't receive a paycheck until the Treasury Department no longer holds any of the company's preferred stock, according to a regulatory filing Tuesday.

Late last year, Capital One sold $3.55 billion in preferred stock and warrants to the Treasury Department under the government's capital purchase program that pumped $250 billion into the nation's banks.

Under a new compensation plan approved last week, Fairbank will also not be able to sell or otherwise transfer any shares obtained from equity grants until the U.S. Treasury no longer holds any preferred shares in the company or one year after he retires from the company.

Don't feel too bad for Fairbank though - he received options valued at $17 million at the time they were granted in 2007, so he should be able to cover his rent and grocery expenses for the next couple of years.

James Saft wonders "Is the executive pay bubble popping?" He notes that "Signs are it won’t just be the salaries of bankers coming under fire" in the coming months:

U.S. Treasury Secretary-designate Tim Geithner told Congress last week he would consider extending a $500,000 cap on the tax deductibility of executive pay to companies beyond those taking government bailout money.

“If confirmed, I would consider extending at least some of the TARP provisions and features of the $500,000 cap to U.S. companies generally as well as potentially imposing other rules beyond those potentially in effect,” he wrote in reply to questions from Senator Carl Levin.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Intel Corp. has become the latest company to let shareholders vote on its executive-compensation policies, showing that more big corporations are reacting to concern about high executive pay and indications that Congress will take action.

The computer-chip maker will give shareholders a nonbinding vote on its pay policies -- a "say on pay" vote -- at its annual meeting in May, said Intel Corporate Secretary Cary Klafter. In the past two weeks, both Hewlett-Packard Co. and Occidental Petroleum Corp. moved toward annual shareholder votes on compensation in 2011 and 2010, respectively.

Don't get too excited - these votes, after all, are nonbinding and deciding to hold them is more a gesture than an actual surrender of compensation control on the part of Intel and other companies. Even so, they are a step in the right direction.

From Daniel Lee of the Indianapolis Star:

Former NiSource Chief Executive Gary Neale's total pay more than doubled after the Merrillville energy company inherited a valuable service contract with Hewitt Associates, which also advises NiSource's board on executive pay.

From 1996 to 2000, NiSource stock rose 32 percent, and Neale made $9.5 million.

Then in 2000, Hewitt picked up NiSource's benefits administration as part of a merger. In the next five years, the stock price fell 61 percent, but Neale's compensation was worth $21 million.

"In effect, the consultants are being asked to evaluate the worth of the executives who hire them and pay them millions of dollars," Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said in a December 2007 hearing. "Like the auditors who signed off on Enron's books, they have an inherent conflict of interest."

Yahoo's new CEO, who is guaranteed to receive at least $11 million in 2009, has taken it upon herself to save the company money by freezing salaries. Not her own salary, though.

Yahoo's employees will not receive any kind of annual raise unless they are prompted to other jobs.

Carol Bartz, on the other hand, is eligible for a $4 million bonus depending on Yahoo's financial performance on top of the $11 million she will get no matter what this year.

Doesn't seem like all Yahoo employees are getting a salary freeze (especially given that the company's last CEO was paid $1 a year - though Jerry Yang was already a billionaire from Yahoo stock  and probably only deserved 50 cents a year at most given his performance).

Newly inaugurated President Barack Obama ordered a pay freeze for White House employees earning over $100,000 a year on his first full day in office - about 120 staffers.

"During this period of economic emergency," Obama said Wednesday, "families are tightening their belts, and so should Washington."

On average, White House staffers get a 1%-4% raise each year, so by freezing salaries Obama is saving the government about $443,000 next year.