There is an unspoken rule that politicians should avoid criticizing the standing government when they travel abroad--at least not too harshly. In finance, there is no such convention. And Warren Buffett was only too happy to offer his views of executive compensation, especially at top financial firms, on a trip to India, where he was received like a true Oracle.

At a meeting of Berkshire Hathaway motor insurance policy holders in New Delhi, he said "that lessons had not been learnt from a period of market 'craziness' over the financing of the U.S. housing sector and the havoc it wreaked on the global financial system. He was highly critical of the fortunes that leading U.S. bankers had made in spite of the misguided strategies their institutions had pursued that brought the US financial system to the edge of an abyss and triggered a global recession," according to the Financial Times.

"In the half a dozen financial institutions that needed help the most during the crisis, that were too big to fail ... the managers which led them into the trouble in all cases went away very, very wealthy," Buffett said.

We've certainly heard this before from a range of critics. But the real issues are the remedies. Clawbacks are now more of a reality, though some think they are dubiously implemented. Others might argue that limited restricted stock and options grants might be wise beyond the first few years, but recruitment may then be hard. And the threat of prosecution doesn't seem palpable.

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