Hmm, still doing stock buybacks and paying dividends -- so exec comp remains buoyant. Back in the early 1980s it was hard to get software companies financed: "

Hmm, still doing stock buybacks and paying dividends -- so exec comp remains buoyant. Back in the early 1980s it was hard to get software companies financed: "Why invest in a company whose primary input walks out the door each evening" (i.e. has no capital assets). Obviously that was eventually sorted out, but the underlying concern was not totally bogus. If you like a company like Microsoft you can tolerate no buybacks and even a dividend cut if it means the company continues to invest in its people.