Wall Street Pay Approaches 2007's Record Highs

The Wall Street Journal :

Financial markets are recovering and the jostling for talent is intensifying as securities firms once again are making money -- and they look set to spread the wealth with their employees should the good times continue.

Based on earnings forecasts for 2009, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is on track to pay out $20 billion this year, or about $700,000 per employee. That would be nearly double the firm's $363,000 average last year, and slightly higher than the $661,000 for the average Goldman employee in fiscal 2007, according to analyst estimates reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Read the whole story: The Wall Street Journal

Comments

[brownstoness]

FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE DAY - STARVE THE BEAST

We're udnergoing a delveraging process. Expect the DJIA to bottom at 5000 or lower.

Americans are starting to come to their senses. The savings rate reached 6.9% last month,
the highest level in 15 years. This brought the level up to the long-term average. As usual,
the pundits on CNBC have concluded that now that we've reached the average, everything is
roses and the consumer can resume their free spending ways and save our economy. These fools
have no concept of history, averages or cycles. The savings rate has been in a downward
spiral for 30 years. Consumers have lost $14 trillion of net worth and 5,000 per day turn
65. Most people have miniscule retirement savings and 14.7 million are unemployed. The
savings rate will go up for the next two decades as people must save.

hat tip to: http://iamned.blogspot.com 4 the good articles

[atomic]

thieves ... rotten criminals

[inorbit]

I'm gonna hafta get a job on Wall Street because no matter how badly you do at your job - you still can make tons of money!

[PhilipTaylor]

W_TF Amazing! 0utrage that Americans ignore this!

[PhilipTaylor]

Hey BE HAPPY the Market is UP!

It is because of two reasons:

1. Enron "Off-the-Books" Accounting Loophole lets Wall Street hide $Hundreds of Trillions in DEBTS.

2. Committee removed impact of the "Mark-to-Market Rule" so Wall Street does NOT have to value the relatively small amount DEBTS they show "On-the-Books"

So everything is a big L1E.

But we are supposed to feel happy that the market is up and suddenly the Zombie Banks are WHOLE again!

[viper234]

No surprises here. They got a huge recovery package from the federal government. Their recession is over!

[helonias]

Luke 6:24. "But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full."
Luke 16:19-25. "Now there was a certain rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, gaily living in splendor every day. And a certain poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores, and longing to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table; besides, even the dogs would come and lick his sores.
Now it came about that the poor man died and he was carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried. And in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes, and saw Abraham far away, and Lazarus in his bosom.
And he cried out and said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue; for I am in agony in this flame.'
But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony...'"

[audeo03]

I want to see Wall Street BURN. What about the honest Americans who actually MAKE PRODUCTS and PROVIDE SERVICES!?!?

[SangZe]

It's out of control, and you ain't seen nothin' yet.

[ebanks84]

Goldman Sachs is the BIGGEST of the money mongers and they are starting it all over again. Wow, unbelievabe. I hope they get crushed like minced nuts this time and NEVER recover so they can go OUT OF BUSINESS forever. They need to fail!

[PhilipTaylor]

You have MY Vote if there is one!

[rogerthat21]

We need to stop the corruption by Goldman, bank of Amerika, and Jp Morgan. Stop the Geithner and bernanke. .

Obama's policies may not be working as well as many had hoped:
1st 100 days - There are 2.9 million more people unemployed in May than there were unemployed in January. The unemployment rate went from 7.6% to 9.4%. Since May 2008, we have lost 5.5 million jobs. The biggest losers were:

Manufacturing 1.5 million lost
Finance & Prof Serv 1.5 million lost
Construction 1.1 million lost
Retail & Leisure 1.3 million lost

good political & economic articles: http://iamned.blogspot.com

[jag97PC]

Thank you for this, I think they are great references. The most important thing to understand is that there are haves and have-nots in many categories, but the average American is a Have-not in both money and power. The politicians on both sides of the aisle are Haves in both money and power... there is no incentive for either side to do anything for the common man. It is time to wake up! and we must take action with our vote rather than just succombing to the system and letting it keep rolling. We must return to the intent of our Founding Fathers!

[TrueSense]

Wall St. and these compensation packages are a distortion of the real economy, destructive to the real economy, and generally end up being destructive to the company itself.

The 2...% of tax that goes to Medicare currently only applies wages. The cap should be lifted of social security too. It should apply to almost every form of income. Derivatives should be taxed at about 1/2 of a percent on trade and stoccks at a little less.

Any compensentaton over $ 1mil should no longer be tax deductible to the company no matter what form it takes. When they did this for salaries, it encouraged stock options. They said they would better reflect stock holder interest but now is out of control and does not help long term.

[thedirtman]

Instead of salary caps let the corporations give them what they want. Then close all the tax loopholes and raise taxes to 75% on the wealthiest 0.1%. Use the extra money to improve efficiency in the infrastructure, wean the west off of foreign oil, and rebuild industry starting with energy. Finally, when all that has taken hold cut expenses in government across the board.

[jazzman]

The rich get richer by ripping off the poor who get poorer. Congress bails them out. No one holds them accountable. They pat each other on the back and give each other great bonuses from our grandchildren's inheritance.

[ProtectTheBabies]

Dodd, Geitner, Obama and Shumer are handing out our cash without any strings attached. The Democratic controlled Congress is ripping off Social Security and Medicare to give these crooks our money.
Please remember this and vote Independent or Repbulican in the next Congressio­nal/Senate vote in your state.

[persimmon8]

I believe Bush started this by giving the first giant stimulus package to the banks and AIG.

I would never vote republican as a solution to our country's problems....they are mostly like children without any sense of how to be responsible in a mature way. Their only ideas are some retro solutions from a past era that have little relevance in todays world.

[Patriot86]

I will never vote GOP again...have been faithful GOP for years. However, they caused this mess. Bush gave out the bulk of the money before Obama took office. Despite obvious weaknesses in the economy, Bush and his money guys did nothing. This could not have happened unless the safeguards in place since the depression were removed ( happened in 2000 with Dem president and GOP Congress). Also, Bush was the worst president ever in terms of manufacturing...The Dems are not perfect, but electing super globalist who only care about the rich and believe lowering taxes is the answer for all problems would be suicide. Sanford is a perfect GOP...refused stimulus money on principle, but used government money to visit his mistress...fakes and hypocrites. If the Dems don't get their act together and quite playing footsie with the Banks and Wall Street, we may indeed have a new party soon.

[politicscorner]

I hate Wall Street.

[lvdragonlady]

We constantly hear the republicans whining about 'capitalism' and allowing the corporations to police themselves, well folks, this article is exactly the reason why corporations can NOT police themselves. They do NOT care about America ONLY about their paychecks. The Federal government needs to step in and CAP all salaries or any and all financial institutions UNTIL America gets back on it feet. IF we don't America will continue to slip while the 'few' steal America from the rest of us.
America, we can not continue to let this happen. Tell your congress person that if they do NOT stand up to the corporations then they too, will be in the unemployment lines.

[jane gutowski]

Just what we need . Crooks being policed by bigger crooks who have control over our money.