In the end, former New York Stock Exchange chief Richard Grasso kept every last penny of his $187.5 million pay package. He won an exercise in jackpot capitalism not for dispelling claims that his compensation was extravagant, but because the case was nullified on what amounts to a legal technicality.

Mr. Grasso, the latest poster boy for corporate greed, is smirking all the way to the bank as the former bulls in the stock market stampede into bear territory. The state law under which he was pursued by the New York attorney general governed not-for-profit companies, but the Big Board converted to a publicly traded, for-profit business two years ago.

So while the unwarranted riches showered on Mr. Grasso were symbolic of exorbitant executive compensation, the legal claim on behalf of the public against his earning excess no longer applied. Game over, said the appellate division of the New York Supreme Court.

That chortling we hear from the direction of Wall Street comes from those who don't care about the concept of fiduciary responsibility. They believe that no deal is too outrageous, if you can get your friends to skirt the rules and set it up for you.

This is the essence of jackpot capitalism and it is poisoning the public's faith in the way businesses are governed.