The fallout continues over the generous $400 million payout to former Exxon Mobil chief executive Lee Raymond. I blogged on the issue last month. His successor Rex Tillerson has just put up the usual sort of justification (the decision of an independent committee etc) on the Today Show and you can follow the link to it here.

But Raymond is no Robinson Crusoe. According to Bloomberg's Graef Crystal, no-one is striking bigger gushers than oil indsutry executives.

In Crystal's analysis of the total pay for 2005 of 492 CEOs running companies worth $3 billion or more, five of the 16 most highly paid came from the oil business. The fact that this is happening at a time when people are paying record prices at the fuel pump is no coincidence.

Crystal has come up with a simple solution."Giving consumers a $100 rebate on their gasoline purchases is utterly laughable - especially considering that the federal budget is not exactly in balance. A better idea would be for the oil company CEOs and their doubtless bloated subordinates to give back, say, half their pay so that their companies could, in turn, cut the price of gas."

I am sure plenty would agree with that. Any other ideas?