Executive pay: Make it complicated

Politicians like to be popular. By that standard, Barack Obama’s reported plan to put a $500.000 cap on salaries for top executives at companies that depend on government support is a great idea. But from almost any other perspective, the new US president is courting disaster. True, a philosopher-king in charge of executive compensation might establish a similar limit. Management theorists used to say the big boss should be paid about 20 times the salary of an average worker. That would suggest...