[CptFribble]

This is actually pretty insightful, and it leads to an interesting question:

If CEO pay is a rational outcome of protecting the equity in a company, and CEO pay is too high, does that mean there's "too much" equity?

There's some evidence that income inequality is bad for society in some ways, which I tend to agree with if it means inefficient/uneven distribution of resources/opportunities/community investments. In this sense, and considering the previous question of "too much equity," is it possible that a company's market value can be too high?

[pm90]

Too high in what sense? Just too high in absolute dollars? Equity is not the same as cash; its a gamble: you're willing to pay a certain amount of money for something that you're betting will increase (or at least hold) value.