In a recent Wall Street Journal piece Deborah Solomon, David Enrich And Daniel Fitzpatrick (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122238888884077341.html), wrote "BB&T Corp. Chief Executive Officer John Allison said a pay ceiling would constitute 'a massive subsidy for incompetence.' In a Sept. 23 letter to some members of Congress, Mr. Allison wrote: 'How will companies attract the leadership talent to manage their business effectively with irrational compensation limits?'" Mr. Allison's qualification of compensation limits as "irrational" seems disingenuous and, well, irrational at best. I would like to remind Mr.Allison that demand for such limits has arisen from the very performance of the CEOs and leading executives who have led the US into the current financial crisis. The pay scale of American CEOs has been growing to multiples of their European and Japanese peers. Has their performance been proportionally superior? The financial markets are answering with a resounding "no!" I submit it to Mr. Allison that it is precisely the current compensation structure of many financial institutions' executives that has contributed to the current crisis. Geared toward quarterly earnings performance, such incentives often neglected fundamental issues of long term growth including the very validity of the business model and even the survival of the corporation. Is that a rational way to pursue shareholders best interest and maximize their investment?