In our new economic era, I think we need a new catchphrase for CEOs like Mack Whittle of the South Financial Group, who pushed up his retirement ahead of schedule so he could bag his mega-Golden parachute a few weeks before he sent his company hat in hand to the government for bailout funds.

Total bailout for Whittle's company: $347 million. Total parachute for Whittle: $18 million.

Seriously, what's the catchphrase? Because I think we're going to see a lot of this.

Late Update: The unfortunate truth is that the tried and true 'golden parachute' is an even better name for what these new guys are doing than what we've usually known as a golden parachute. But since that's already taken, we must look elsewhere. The best entry I've seen so far is TPM Reader RB's 'bail jumping.' Or, as I might shift the words around, 'jumping bail.'

Latter Update: Perhaps just TPM Reader LP's simple 'Golden Bailout'?

Late High Altitude Update: A slew of readers mention some play or another on the name D.B. Cooper, which is extremely clever and really captures what the game is, though I fear may be too obscure for the younger set.