“There seem to be two economic realities operating in our country today," Representative Henry Waxman, Democrat of California, the committee chairman, said as the hearing opened Friday morning. "Most Americans live in a world where economic security is precarious and there are real economic consequences for failure. But our nation’s top executives seem to live by a different set of rules." The question before the committee, he said, was this: “When companies fail to perform, should they give millions of dollars to their senior executives?” The discussion was expected to shed some light on how Wall Street’s compensation philosophy may have contributed to the mortgage boom. Full Article at The New York Times