We've covered a lot of topics in the brass Ridiculous column, from refurbished missile silos to uncommon funeral techniques. Last year, columnist Stephen Ullmer uncovered outrageous CEO compensation. But that story is never over, and with the Wall Street crisis front and center in the news these days, so are executive paychecks. According to Newsweek, the CEOs who had a hand in this year's financial crisis have been dropping left and right. Lehman Brothers was the company that started the most recent chain reaction. Its CEO Richard Fuld walked out the door with $22 million in his pocket, after saying "the worst is behind us" in April 2008. Oops. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were in trouble earlier this year when they were nearly forced to declare bankruptcy. When Uncle Sam finally stepped in, Fannie had racked up $800 billion in debt, and Freddie had $740 billion. At least we can be reassured by the fact that regulators stepped in to keep Fannie and Freddie CEOs Daniel Mudd and Richard Syron, respectively, from receiving their multimillion dollar exit bonuses. Alan Fishman of Washington Mutual heads for the door with $11.6 million in severance cash. Oh, but he was just hired three weeks ago with a nice $7.5 million hiring bonus. Not bad. Granted, three weeks is hardly enough time to run a company into the ground (though Duncan from the Buried Life got fired as CEO of eBay in just a day). That dubious distinction belonged to Kerry Killinger, who left a month ago and is eligible for $20 million in severance pay. The only bright light? At least AIG's former CEO Robert Willumstad refused his $22 million severance package, which seems only fair considering that he started in July and the company tanked in September. I have to give him credit--he probably didn't have a whole lot to work with. We can hope, but whether or not the bailout bill will be able to limit compensation for CEOs is still up in the air. --Jennie