Any time a company files with the Securities & Exchange Commission late on a Friday afternoon when most people have headed home for the long Memorial Day weekend, it usually means there is something newsworthy in there.

Well, Morgan Stanley doesn't disappoint with its filing today at 4:35 p.m. announcing that the board was doubling the salary of former CEO John Mack, who remains the investment bank's executive chairman.

Morgan Stanley said it was boosting Mack's base salary to $2 million from $800,000 in 2009.

By Wall Street standards, $2 million is by no means a large amount. And it isn't large by Mack's personal standards, either. Mack was paid a total of $41 million including salary and bonus in 2006.

But the bump in Mack's salary is the first such move since 2005 and it comes after a year when Morgan Stanley has weathered some ups and downs in its trading strategy and has been criticism for having some of the highest compensation levels (as measured by compensation as a percentage of revenue) in the industry.

Things have been improving as of late. Morgan's stock price has outperformed that of rival Goldman Sachs since the beginning of the year.

Does a tree falling in the woods make a sound when there is no one there to hear it? The same could be asked of Mack's newly enlarged salary.

Michael Corkery

• disappoint [,disə´pɔint] vt.使失望；使....落空 (初中英语单词)
• investment [in´vestmənt] n.投资；(时间等)投入 (初中英语单词)
• executive [ig´zekjutiv] a.行政的 n.行政官 (初中英语单词)
• amount [ə´maunt] n.总数；数量 v.合计 (初中英语单词)
• criticism [´kritisizəm] n.批评；评论(文) (初中英语单词)
• percentage [pə´sentidʒ] n.百分数；比例；部分 (初中英语单词)
• beginning [bi´giniŋ] n.开始，开端；起源 (初中英语单词)
• commission [kə´miʃən] n.委任(状) vt.委任 (高中英语单词)
• memorial [mi´mɔ:riəl] a.纪念的 n.纪念物 (高中英语单词)
• compensation [,kɔmpen´seiʃən] n.补偿，赔偿 (高中英语单词)
• weekend [´wi:kend, ,wi:k´end] n.周末休假 (英语四级单词)
• strategy [´strætidʒi] n.兵法；战略 (英语六级单词)