That's the question you, too, will ask if you read today's L.A. Times story about Angelo Mozilo, Chairman of Countrywide.

Here's a guy who changed the way lenders do business.  He gets some of the credit (and the blame)  for making home loans available to people who really didn't deserve them and couldn't afford them.  Now the entire industry is collapsing.  Thousands of homeowners are facing foreclosure.  And Countrywide shareholders have lost many millions of dollars.

And yet Mozilo is sitting pretty now.

The article details how he earned enormous amounts of money.   His company was struggling, but Mozilo was taking home hundreds of millions of dollars.

His company hired a consultant to recommend what his pay should be.  When that consultant complained that Mozilo was making too much, the consultant was fired, and another one was brought in who suggested he get even more money.

Part of his pay was a $10 million dollar bonus, described as "reimbursement for retirement payments he could have received had he retired."

Imagine that!  The guy didn't retire.  He got a massive salary.  And he got compensated for what he would had received IF he had retired!

Today, Mozilo is supposed to testify before a congressional committee.  He could face some tough questions.