I would note first that, personally, I think the whole coterie of Rubinites (those people who, by embracing the foolish idea that piling on debt and leveraging their assets beyond the logical was a smart idea, are, and were, kindred spirits of Robert Rubin) should face jail time. We put people in jail for carrying some drugs or stealing groceries but these folks who are responsible for untold misery–from the retired people who now have to figure out how to make it by on less money to those kids who won’t have a decent education because quavering politicians would rather cut school funding than tax the rich–are not only not going to do time but still have their friggin’ jobs (unlike the hundreds of thousands of people who will lose their jobs in the financial sector because of the greed and stupidity of a few). But, I digress…

  Of course, remorsefulness is not in great evidence in the executives suites in the U.S. But, not true in Switzerland:  

  As a number of American banks resist calls to rein in executive pay, the unthinkable is happening — at least in Switzerland, where three former officials of UBS, the troubled Swiss financial giant, said on Tuesday that they would forgo more than $27 million in compensation.

Marcel Ospel, the former chairman of the board at the Swiss bank, and Stephan Haeringer and Marco Suter, two former directors, said they would give up pay promised them after the bank reported nearly $50 billion in losses and received even more than that in financial support from the Swiss government.

"With the involvement of the Swiss government, I realized that decisive action was required on my part," Mr. Ospel said in a statement. "I hope that my action will help to resolve a situation that was inconceivable to me until a short time ago," he said.

Mr. Ospel will contribute more than two-thirds of the total; the balance will be paid by Mr. Haeringer and Mr. Suter.

  And over at the Financial Times, we learn that the incompetent insurance executives at AIG will have their pay frozen:

AIG announced a salary freeze on Tuesday for its top seven executives, with the chief executive Edward Liddy agreeing to be paid a symbolic sum of $1 for his work this year and next.

The pay freeze comes in the wake of two government bail-outs, which saved the insurance giant from bankruptcy this autumn.

There has been mounting outrage over outsized pay packages and perks for executives at troubled companies, as well as the self-inflicted public relations problem at AIG

  Now, let’s be clear again. These people should be going to jail, or at the very least out on the streets without a job. And, as I pointed out in the case of Chrysler’s CEO Robert Nardelli (who could be magnanimous by offering to keep his job for $1-a-year in salary because during a six-year stint as CEO of Home Depot, Nardelli took home $64 million even though the company did very poorly), all of these people who are giving back money or having their pay frozen are already multi-millionaires, having legally absconded with piles of cash in past years. So, their hardship, if you can call it that, is having to figure out how to cut down from five mansions to four mansions, or perhaps, more likely, fire some of their domestic staff.

  But, today, as we approach the annual day to celebrate the mass killing of turkeys (nah, I’m not a vegetarian, just un-American), I’ll take what I can get as a Thanksgiving gift.