Bloomberg View columnist Barry Ritholtz interviews Steven Clifford. Compensation consultants are parasites, so says Steven Clifford, author of "The CEO Pay Machine: How it Trashes America and How to Stop it." Clifford is a former tech company chief executive officer who has grown disillusioned with the procedures and practices that serve no corporate purpose other than enriching the CEO and senior management. What was supposed to be pay for performance, he said, has become a scheme to transfer wealth from shareholders to insiders.