Still quite a bit of chatter today about the Marie Antoinette-ish tactics of Circuit City CEO Philip Schoonover, who along with his board decided to fire several thousand workers who were making more than the market would bear (we're talking $12-$15 an hour). Anyway, a few folks were wondering how much Schoonover himself raked in. According to Forbes, he was at $1.4 million (salary and bonus) in 2006, plus another $3 million or so in long-term compensation. Which got Julie Tilsner at Blogging Stocks wondering why, in the name of improved bottom lines, he didn't lower his compensation even further - to, say, $980,000 a year, plus benefits and stock options.

But wait just a minute! Schoonover is number 406 on Forbes' CEO pay list! At the end of the day, he's not making very much compared to a lot of other chief executives. You could argue that in his upper-strata world, it's hard to make ends meet on a mere $2 million a year. So the idea that he should be fired, then rehired at a lower salary is absurd. Ridiculous. Nobody would even suggest it. Well exactly. So why is the company pulling this stunt with its rank and file?