Pay czar strikes

For all the big-picture focus that the administration has paid to health care reform, attention to the financial services biz has been, at best, scattershot. Today came word that the federal pay czar, Kenneth Feinberg, will review compensation at Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and 417 other firms that took government bailout funds. The idea is to determine whether top executives at those firms received more than 500K during a several-month period between late 2008, when TARP money was handed out, and early 2009, when bonus season was wrapping up. But in the grand scheme of things, what good is that going to do? Feinberg can't even subpoena these firms or file a lawsuit. Bonuses are obviously an outrage, but the far bigger issue is process - Wall Street keeps running as if the past couple of years never happened.