Opportunity Knock$

Turns out that the very CEOs that have been laying off half a million workers have been banking some mad bling bling:

Indeed, the report found that “CEOs of the 50 firms that have laid off the most workers since the onset of the economic crisis took home nearly $12 million on average in 2009.” Those CEOs’ combined compensation totaled $598 million, while at the same time, their companies eliminated 531,363 jobs despite reporting a 44 percent average profit increase for 2009.

The CEO part isn't even newsworthy, since middle class Americans have been very strident in their determination that the uber-richest of the uber-rich stay absurdly wealthy, since of course god forbid Joe the Pretend Plumber wake up and find himself a CEO without a $49M parachute package.

But as for these companies leading the league in layoffs, I still wonder if part of it is opportunistic on their parts.