Jim Webb: Bailout should include strengthened regulatory structure, cap on executive compensation

Story by Chris Graham
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U.S. Sen. Jim Webb is urging that the $700 billion bailout of the U.S. mortgage industry being contemplated by Congress include a strengthened regulatory structure to prevent future market instability and a cap on executive compensation in companies being rescued by taxpayers.

“It is inarguable that the regulatory structure now in place has not protected either our financial system or the U.S. taxpayer,” said Webb, who laid out his thoughts on the bailout in a letter to Senate Banking Committee chair Chris Dodd over the weekend. “The administration is asking for an unprecedented rescue of the most profitable institutions in America with the taxpayers footing the bill. No bailout should occur without a return to increased regulation,” said Webb, who added that “we must ensure that executive compensation in those companies being rescued by American taxpayers is reasonable in scope, until this crisis has passed and the American taxpayers have been made whole.”

Webb has made economic fairness and justice a focal point of his economic-policy efforts since before he made his run for Senate in 2006.

“Executive compensation in the United States is outrageously out of proportion with any other period in our history, and with any other major country in the world today. Unless we insist on this basic principle of fairness, we will rightly risk the condemnation of our fellow citizens. Further, as the government purchases securities using this new authorization, it must do so at true market value or less. To do otherwise would subsidize those who precipitated this crisis,” Webb said.