And that is a bit of bummer for our whole remuneration system and theory, because apparently it is built on shaky grounds.

FORBES: Employee remuneration systems are often based on the wrong assumptions

But what that tells you is that there is an element of windfall in the remuneration of the pay of some of these chief executives - which a sensible remuneration system would presumably endeavour to minimise.

BBC: The bad and the good of bumper bosses pay

Regulators have belatedly responded to what they acknowledge was a remuneration system that encouraged dangerous risk-taking. the Committee of European Banking Supervisors produced a series of principles for remuneration in 2009 and on Dec. 10 this year published its final guidelines on the matter.

WSJ: Bankers Are Still There for Bashing

But another explanation for the results is that the current system of setting bosses' remuneration is in better shape than Mr Buffett and others believe, and that shareholders are, by and large, happy to support it.

ECONOMIST: Restraints on executive pay

At the annual meeting of his holding company, Berkshire Hathaway, on May 2nd the legendary investor railed against a system that lets chief executives choose the members of remuneration committees.

ECONOMIST: Restraints on executive pay

The government will amend company law so that shareholder votes on big businesses' prospective remuneration plans for executives will be binding - as opposed to the current system of advisory votes (which have the power to embarrass companies but not to compel them).

BBC: What kind of democracy for votes on bosses' pay?

It also boasts of a focus on business niches in which it can secure a top-five position, and a pioneering risk-management system that emphasises the creation of shareholder value, and links employees' remuneration to their value to shareholders.

ECONOMIST: Investment banking

The latest draft has added, apparently at the last minute, a whole section on managers' remuneration, which seems to have been cut and pasted from similar proposals relating to the banking system.

ECONOMIST: The European Union serves up a dog��s breakfast