When is a contract inviolate and when isn't it?

It is hard not to be disappointed with the new President these days when it comes to managing the crisis in the credit markets and in industrial policy (not that we have an "industrial policy, but that is a rant for another day). Note the contrast between the tough stance taken with what remains of Chrysler and GM, found here
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/business/01auto.html?_r=1&hp
and letting the departing chief executive of GM walk away with millions, detailed here
http://blogs.bnet.com/secdocuments/?p=103
Forcing the automakers into bankruptcy might result in mass immiseration among those who labored for decades to fund their retirements. Meanwhile, although they forced Rick Wagoner out, they are allowing him to keep all he acquired while he ran GM into the ground. When are we going to get away from "Geithnerism", as the Nation calls it, the belief that it is okay to have the elite be rewarded and coddled regardless of their performance while those who shower at night are expendable even if they perform well? Sure we need experts to manage things at the highest levels, but they don't have to be so obscenely compensated. Will this ever be straightened out before injustice fatigue sets in?