Critics abound complaining of excessive pay for CEOs with Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton the latest example.

But the critics are off base, says John Tamny, editor of Real Clear Markets.

In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, he cites former Coca-Cola CEO Robert Goizueta and former Apple CEO Steve Jobs as examples.

When Goizueta started as CEO of Coke in 1980, it was worth $4 billion, and when he died in October 1997, it was worth $145 billion. The same kind of growth occurred at Apple under Jobs.

Goizueta's estimated net worth when he died: $994 million. Jobs’ Apple shares were estimated at $2.1 billion when he died.

"Were they overpaid? The shareholders of each firm never quibbled with the pay or net worth of these two legendary CEOs," Tamny says.

What Goizueta and Jobs did illustrates why CEO pay is so high, he explains. "Since one man or woman can potentially affect the fortunes of a corporation to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, CEO pay mirrors what is possible — even though it is by no means certain."

Meanwhile, Democrats have tried to make political hay out of the growth in income inequality over the last 35 years.

But here's a statistical shocker from economist Douglas Holtz-Eakin of the American Action Forum. Income inequality has risen more under Presidents Obama and Clinton than under the Bushes. That's according to Census Bureau data known as the Gini coefficient, one of the most prominent gauges of income inequality.

"How does this happen?" Holtz-Eakin writes on his group's web site. "The economic lifeblood of the middle class is labor earnings and the central tenet of raising middle-class income is increases in (inflation-adjusted) earnings."

But by this measure Obama and Clinton beat only President George H.W. Bush, President George W. Bush bests all three.

"This straight reading of the record raises the fundamental question: if the core of progressive policies did not succeed in raising wages and lowering inequality for the past six years, why should the voters have any interest in suffering for another four to eight?" Holtz-Eakin says.

Related Stories:

• Furchtgott-Roth: Hillary, California Are Wrong on Sharing Economy
  
• Child Poverty Rates Grow During Economic Recovery, Report Says