No curbs on Wall Street pay despite meltdown

Source: Economic Times India

25 Oct, 2008, 0428 hrs IST, AGENCIES

NEW YORK: Despite the Wall Street meltdown, America's biggest banks are preparing to pay their workers as much as last year or more, including bonuses tied to personal and company performance.

So far this year, nine of the largest US banks, including some that have cut thousands of jobs, have seen total costs for salaries, benefits and bonuses grow by an average of 3 percent from a year ago, according to an Associated Press review.

"Taxpayers have lost their life savings, and now they are being asked to bail out corporations," New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said of the AP findings. "It's adding insult to injury to continue to pay outsized bonuses and exorbitant compensation."

Banks will decide what to pay out in bonuses in the coming months. Just because they've been accruing money for incentive pay doesn't mean they will pay it out in full.


Read more: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/International_Business/No_curbs_on_Wall_Street_pay/articleshow/3638959.cms

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What a disgrace. :grr:

Corporate socialism doesn't seem to work the same way that socialism would for the rest of us!

it appears anything goes.

Bush and his cronies stole the peoples trillion dollars in broad daylight by crying wolf once again. The media are obviously complicit since they are completely silent on the bonus's. The only person who has challenged this crap is Dennis Kucinich. And there are boatloads of DU'ers around here who need to eat crow. Thanks for nothing folks.

bonuses reward is the effective sucking at the taxpayer teat to bail out their sorry asses on a failed economic model of chaos and individual opportunism.

"How'd this year go at the office, dear?"
"Well, we lost our asses in the business, but the taxpayers have agreed to give us billions to keep us in bon-bons and truffles."
"That's so nice of them. I wonder what poor people do in the season."
"Nothing. If they did anything, they'd be getting big performance bonuses, wouldn't they?"
"Of course, why didn't I think of that?"

We didn't seize control of their boards. We didn't fire the CEO's and CFO's. Heck we even hired one of their bigwigs to run the treasury and he picked one of his worker bee's to run the bail-out. There were very little stipulations put on the money. Now had we let them all fail and file bankruptcy the courts would have taken over and many of them would be lucky to walk away with a 100K and most would be hitting craig's list looking for their next meal ticket.

The gravy train begins on Wall Street.

The Treasury Department is only interested in purchasing preferred shares rather than common voting stock. Preferred shares are preferred with respect to dividends but have no voting authority.

So while I'm worrying if I can afford to fill up my gas tank, while I worry how I am going to afford heating my place.... IF I have a place this winter.... they are getting bonuses ..... GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

<sigh>

Hope you'll be ready to fight to save social security & medicare! I think we'll see attempts to cut/eliminate them in the next year or so...