YOUR RANT: How can we stop the layoffs?

911 REPAIR: These are M.A.D. economic times. That's M.A.D. as in Mutually Assured Destruction, the old Cold War strategy in which no one would be left standing after that first nuke was launched. Economic experts, who agree on little else, agree on this: If our current vicious cycle of "layoffs driving down purchasing, which increases layoffs" continues, no one will be left standing.

There is an exit strategy here that no one is talking about: billions of dollars that could be used to address the layoff cycle immediately. This is not a plea for legislation or government funds. In fact, not a penny would come from taxpayers. It's simple, voluntary and, dare I say, patriotic. The "Chief Executive Officer Patriot Pledge" (see below) is 95-word call to action for all corporate leaders, not just those in financial services, to reign in their own wretched excesses and voluntarily reinvest part of their lofty salaries and perks to keep employees on the payroll.

Entitlement and greed are the only words I can find to describe $18 billion in bonuses given during the last two months of 2008, at the same time a million people were being laid off (including at these very firms that were giving bonuses to a select few). Who paid the bill that allowed these corporations to party? U.S. taxpayers, courtesy of former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's inability to ask for any accountability from the corporations receiving $350 billion in TARP (Troubled Assets Relief Program) funds. Who knew the "free market" could be so expensive?

Heck of a job, Paulie!

Some will scream "socialism," but socialism isn't voluntary. The CEO Patriot Pledge is pure capitalism, rewarding people when they do well and refusing to grossly enrich failure any longer. I'm not begrudging anybody for achieving success, just asking for a bonus system tied to real achievement. How do we define excessive executive compensation? And how much money are we really talking about?

The Corporate Library, a research firm, examined the paychecks of CEOs of the Russell 3,000 (the 3,000 largest U.S. companies based on market capitalization) and calculated these executives were overpaid by $14.7 billion annually. This does not include the huge paychecks of chief operating officers, chief executive officers, etc. It also doesn't include tens of thousands of executives at smaller firms. I estimate that billions could be found to reduce layoffs just from excessive executive pay.

Of course, some executives consider themselves worthy of large compensation, no matter how disproportionate or unwarranted. Just ask John Thain, former CEO of Merrill Lynch, who, in a recent interview, told CNBC that it was important, even in troubled times, to give top talent over-the-top paychecks. If these top executives, at Merrill Lynch and thousands of other firms, are so talented, then how did we end up with 626,000 new unemployment claims filed just last week, with half of our 401(k)s gone, and with, my personal favorite, a $35,000 executive commode funded from the public trough?

Fortunately, there are some executives who get it -- for example, Thomas A. James, CEO of Raymond James. Sound familiar? They are the sponsors of the stadium of the most recent Super Bowl. Raymond James had almost $3 billion in revenue last year. Yet Tom James' guaranteed base salary was only $325,000, less than 20 times the amount of the lowest-paid worker at his company. Compare that with the average CEO salary, which is 262 times that of the lowest-paid worker. (For every "average" salaried CEO who cuts back his or her base salary to a ratio of even 40 times the salary of the lowest-paid worker, almost 200 workers would keep their jobs.)

While the S&P 500 sank, Raymond James had a positive return for its investors. With the bonus he earned, Tom James' total compensation was slightly more than $3 million. But the key word here is "earned." It is no accident that Raymond James has a conservative compensation philosophy and the company also did well despite the carnage in the rest of the market. Continued...