The US Treasury has just announced new rules governing the remuneration of senior executives in companies that are affected by the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (EESA).

• Companies that sell more than $300m in crappy - sorry, I mean troubled - assets to the Treasury are not allowed to offer golden parachutes, nor are they allowed to deduct from their corporate taxes the cost of any exec's pay above $500,000. Golden parachutes that are still permitted also have their tax deductibility restricted and - get this! - there is a 20% excise tax on those golden parachutes.
• Financial institutions where the Treasury buys into the equity will have strict remuneration rules imposed on them, including provisions to make sure the pay structure doesn't include excessive risk-taking, and a claw-back of any bonuses based on profits that turn out to be "materially inaccurate". And again there's a limit on the tax deductibility of executive pay above $500,000.

Aside from the general clamping down on funny-money pay deals, the tax restrictions will hurt, too. The extra revenue for the Treasury won't make a big dent in the hundreds of billions of dollars being thrown at this problem, but, hey! it's a start!