In recent years with the explosion of hedge funds and private equity, many have been bringing a magnifying glass to the growing income inequality in the US. Well now that several hedge funds have blown up, and private equity is slowing down, lets switch this magnifying glass over to Stan O'Neal, Merrill Lynch's departing CEO who oversaw the largest dollar loss at a bank in history.

Under his tenure, Merrill lost $8 Billion dollars in the sumprime meltdown earlier this year (and many say they lost another $4 Billion that they have yet to own up to), and yet his golden parachute will be in the amount of $168 million dollars. Talk about failing upward...