Wall Street's Bonuses Problem: Should They Be 7 Figures Or 8?

New York Times:

Everyone on Wall Street is fixated on The Number.

The bank bonus season, that annual rite of big money and bigger egos, begins in earnest this week, and it looks as if it will be one of the largest and most controversial blowouts the industry has ever seen.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[my whitehouse]

11:06 AM on 01/11/2010

welcome to the 'new normal' - no jobs, but record bonuses for wall street. A cabinet largely indifferent to the struggle of average Americans. What a joke.
hat tip to http://iamned-website.blogspot.com

[melton244]

02:16 AM on 01/11/2010

So we get 2-3% interest off OUR money ...and the bankers get billions off OUR money.....sounds like the mob...

[billw8017]

11:11 PM on 01/10/2010

The big problem isn't how the banks distribute their profits, it is the profits themselves. Their choice of distribution may distract from them investing in America, but for the decline of manufacturing and commerce here, there are no good investments. When Jim Kramer says, you know and I know these stocks are not worth what they sell for, but they should be bought anyway because you can sell them for more, Jim Kramer is describing a bubble.

In this instance, the stock market and financial income is an index of disposable income among the elite. They are desperate to invest, they tumble for funny paper derivatives, they swim in cash and toss the cash back and forth among themselves. They are a comic sideshow, their money is not our money nor so real as it appears. It only seems real because it is interchangable with the money of people who make real THINGS.

[FoonTheElder]

11:10 PM on 01/10/2010

They should change that bull statue to a giant hog.

[melton244]

02:17 AM on 01/11/2010

actually to Tony Soprano

[OneConservative]

10:52 PM on 01/10/2010

I thought the Democrat party was regulating Wall Street now. What gives?

[PhilipTaylor]

10:16 PM on 01/10/2010

WALL STREET IS OUT OF CONTROL!

War on People is the Problem - by the Financial Aristocracy!

279 years of Pay for all Senators and House Members = G0LDMAN 2009 Bonuses! $26,000,000,000

2,136.5 Years of Pay for ALL Senators and House Members = Wall Street 2009 Bonuses $200,000,000,000

65,000 years of pay for our President = G0LDMAN'S 2009 Bonuses! $26,000,000,000

500,000 Years of pay for our President = Wall Street's 2009 Bonuses! $200,000,000,000

[PhilipTaylor]

10:17 PM on 01/10/2010

WALL STREET AND THE FINANCIAL ARISTOCRACY ARE "OUT OF CONTROL!"

NOTHING FOR MAIN STREET! EVERYTHING FOR CR00KED WALL STREET!

That is because Wall Street Transferred 5% of the GIANT MAMMOTH $600-$700 Trillion debt to the American Government/Taxpayer/People!

Wall Street debt transfer will sink America and the American People!

Where are the Investigations of Wall Street and the Arrests and Prosecutions?

Famous Wall Street Billionaire EXPERT and TRADER Wilbur Ross said,

"We are in the Midst of what will turn out to be by future economic historians to have been an epic moment, namely the most MASSIVE transfer of liabilities (DEBTS) from the private sector (Banking and Corporations) to the public sector (Government and the People) that the world has ever seen. And I think that is going to be a painful and relatively slow process..(taking many years)."

Debt from WS Banks to Government = Wealth from Government to WS Banks!

$700 Trillion Toxic Derivatives “OFF-BALANCE-SHEET”/ 100 Million Families=$7 Million/Family

http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1174574949&play=1

Skip 2/3rds of way to 7:58 mark!

Wall Street wants to DUMP $7 Million per Families FUTURE onto Americans to COVER THEIR SCAM!

Almost $700 Trillion in TOXIC Derivatives hidden "Off-Balance-Sheet" by Wall Street and Related Institutions!

[helen]

10:10 PM on 01/10/2010

Obama has a plan? Did he clear it with the banks first? ;P

[BlueSkyPilot]

07:57 PM on 01/10/2010

I vote for 8 figures taxed at 90 %.

[hellboundtrain]

10:35 PM on 01/10/2010

98%!

[my whitehouse]

07:13 PM on 01/10/2010

hat tip to http://iamned1114.blogspot.com

[hellboundtrain]

06:10 PM on 01/10/2010

Wall Streets Bonus Program should be 10 or 12 figures, because if Americans will allow 7 or 8 figures, with nary a peep, they will allow ANYTHING!

or

If these absurd bonuses are good enough for these people that do not produce anything of substance for the good of humanity, the powers that be MUST ALLOW Main Street America to be rewarded similarly, or even more, because what Main Street does IS REAL, and does contribute?

[curiosa]

05:13 PM on 01/10/2010

The situation is desperate for people all across the country who provide the essence of our culture: artists and craftspeople, restaurants and nurseries, furniture stores, boutiques and antique shops, you name it. Government programs usually concentrate on shoring up infrastructure and education- rightfully so. Something needs to be done fast to inject money back into the mainstream. I don't think anything is going to stop banks from giving out astronomical bonuses for 2009. Furthermore I think the recipients of the bonuses probably don't want to be identified at the moment which leads to more hoarding of cash. Just as I think 'move your money' is a great idea, and I've moved mine- I'd like to see a 'spend your money' campaign aimed at all bonus recipients and others who are thriving- a movement in which creative and thoughtful spending can take place across the country. A spending spree aimed at small businesses that provide goods and services that enrich people's lives. Get those bonuses in cash and spend them!

[drbob601]

04:00 PM on 01/10/2010

Only 185 comments on this story?

Are we suffering from "bonus burnout"?

[vippy]

06:34 PM on 01/10/2010

LOL, it does wear one out, same thing over and over and nothing but ridiculous bad headlines,
we have not got a chance it seems.

[stargazer13]

03:40 PM on 01/10/2010

While the managed corporate media was giving America happy talk. I, and many others in the progressive alternative media, have been reporting over and over that the economy was a disaster. The recovery, as I have pointed out, is merely a recovery for the super rich while the rest of America rots.

So now the jobs numbers come out and the report is that America has lost 85,ooo jobs last month. But wait there is good news, or at least that is what some are reporting, the unemployment rate is still 10%.

Well if you believe that then you are as dumb as the government and the managed media hopes you are.

[azdisabledsci]

03:39 PM on 01/10/2010

Please watch this highly informative Bill moyers about how they are getting away with it & how the only way to effect change is to vote out all incumbents as they are all corrupt. Can we please find one brave level headed fair man that is willing to stand up for the American people. Sadly I no longer think it is Barak Obama.

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/01082010/watch.html

[Johnny Tremaine]

01:33 PM on 01/10/2010

Look, 'creative' bankers will always find the loop holes in the system to pay themselves bonuses.

What we really need to do to keep the financial institutions from the ability to crash the entire economy, is bring back the Glass-Steagall Act.

Separate traditional deposit banking from investment banking and trading operations.

But how much do you want to bet that the Obama administration has no intention of doing that?

[BikeFreak]

03:29 PM on 01/10/2010

What we really need are lawmakers who would be willing to show a backbone and put a stop to all this non-sense.

And to answer your question: Obama and Co. will not be the one to do that.

[hellboundtrain]

05:57 PM on 01/10/2010

Most lawmakers (but not all) have backbones like a flaccid unit,
and that's what too many fiat $ do to that.