I believe I didn't bring my point across properly, mostly since it was made up of three comments.
My point is the discrepancy of cultural values and their influence on business practices, especially the monetary evaluation of a CEO's performance. To me, the US values embedded with CEO compensation levels are a direct cause of the loose control exerted onto the markets and the practical non-existence of limits.
The obvious difference between the US, Germany and Japan is, that while all three are free market economies, Germany and Japan have much more socialistic-oriented populaces, cultural values and business practices.
This interweaves with your point of the masking of the CEO value. Not only do the socialistic values require a level playing field, but it also requires for the wealth gap of the citizen not to increase too quickly (or at all); pertaining to a an overall advancement in wealth of the entire society. The mentioned values then result in a compensation ceiling.
Further, one aspect I believe you to be wrong in is the apparent assumption that German and Japanese CEOs have difficulty in quickly changing their employers, as otherwise (from an entirely opportunistic perspective) it does not make sense not to go for an executive position at a different company in a foreign country and receive a much larger compensation package.
Some of these German and Japanese CEOs belong to the very elite of business folks. If they went to work for a large US company, their skills would quickly ensure them a large compensation package (consider the similar size in assets between Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and Mitsubichi UFJ).
However, these elite CEOs stay in their home countries, continue the prosperity of their companies and in effect aid the growth of their respective societies.
Josef Ackermann and Akio Toyoda are very big players in their international business fields. Or take Porsche's genius former CEO Michael Mauer for example, who with his extreme feat between 1996 till 2007 expanded the size of Porsche as a company by over 1000%. Mr Mauer still works for Porsche and his compensation still does not go above the German CEO compensation ceiling, even though there can be no doubt he has received very lucrative offers by other companies over the years.
To get to the essence of it: the reason Japanese and German companies so easily retain their elite CEOs with such small compensation packages is due to the stark difference in the cultural values between the two and the US. The German and Japanese societies, as a generalized statement, put a strong emphasis on the "common good and benefit". Something sorely amiss in the US and reflected by the CEO compensation packages, in my opinion.
While what I say may appear dubious in nature, I hope to have conveyed properly the fundamental values which allow for some countries' elite CEOs to still receive "small" compensation packages, and other countries' elite CEOs swimming in cash.
In conclusion, I do not believe the US CEOs' compensation packages to be justified. A small CEO compensation package doesn't stop German and Japanese companies to play in the top league.
I am pretty tired right now, and if I haven't made sense in some parts I'll rectify it tommorrow.
Cheers
