A dream team of former CEOs who lost billions on bad mortgages is sitting before Henry Waxman's committee this morning: Countrywide's Angelo Mozilo, Citigroup's Charles Prince and Merrill Lynch's Stanley O'Neal. Mozilo, for his part, says he'll give up $36 million of his golden parachute of Countrywide's sale to Bank of America goes through.

"It seems that CEOs hit the lottery when their companies collapse," House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said at the opening of the hearing. "Any reasonable relation between their compensation and the interests of their shareholders appears to have broken down."

Waxman noted that Mozilo received more than $120 million in compensation and sales of Countrywide stock last year while that company recorded losses of $1.6 billion. Merrill Lynch lost $10 billion in 2007, but O'Neal got a $161 million retirement package.