For a while, troubled banks and automakers were shouting themselves hoarse arguing that their survival depended on continuing to pay humongous salaries to their top executives. If the mean, petty and thoroughly shortsighted Obama administration allowed Kenneth R. Feinberg, the special master for executive compensation at corporations receiving federal aid, to cut back compensation below pre-existing levels, there would be a flood of departures, and the companies would go down the tubes.

Funny how that worked out:

For months, Wall Street banks and the troubled automakers feverishly protested that their top executives would flee if they were not lavishly rewarded for their talents. New data, however, suggests the departures were more of a trickle than a flood.

Of the 104 senior executives whose pay was set by the federal pay regulator in the last two years, 88 executives, or nearly 85 percent, are still with the companies even though their pay was drastically cut back, according to people briefed on the government data.