Ray Fisman & Tim Sullivan

It's easy to get upset about perks and pay packages like Mr. Thain's. But even in the face of public and investor outrage, CEO salaries are still on the rise. Progress Energy's CEO Bill Johnson received a $44 million payout when he left the company after its merger with Duke Energy last year, and Abercrombie CEO Michael Jeffries took home over $48 million in 2011 -- while the company's stock price tanked.

Excessive, decadent? That's a hard call to make without having some idea of what a CEO does. Many CEOs are overpaid or, even worse, paid for incompetence. Still, you can only appreciate the difference between pay-for-performance and pay-for-incompetence by first understanding the CEO's job.

Ray Fisman and Tim Sullivan

Inventory controls, workplace efficiency, and more paperwork help countries and businesses more than you can imagine.

Leslie Kwoh

What's the value of a meeting with a chief executive? For investors pondering large stakes in a company, a few minutes of a CEO's time can be worth millions of dollars, giving them deeper insight into a firm's strategy and prospects.