Crisis has not altered Wall Street

Source: Los Angeles Times

Despite a large second-quarter operating loss, Morgan earmarked $3.9 billion for bonuses and other compensation. That was almost three-quarters of its quarterly revenue, far more than firms typically shell out.

A year after Lehman's record-setting bankruptcy sent shivers through the global financial system and sparked predictions of a wholesale reordering in the way Wall Street operates, one old saw remains: The more things change on Wall Street, the more they stay the same.

...

But on the whole, Wall Street has recovered more quickly than expected with little difference in how it does business. And the unapologetic pursuit of money remains as deeply rooted as ever.

Bellwether firms led by Goldman Sachs Group are churning out mouth-watering profits. Risk-taking and aggressive securities trading are mounting a comeback. And compensation -- the lifeblood of Wall Street -- is pushing back toward pre-crisis levels.


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-wall-street14-2009sep14,0,318685,full.story

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don't worry, they'll cherish our bundled life insurance policies like their own flesh and blood...
FAUX headline, 2011: "Insuring non-whites and illegals caused life-insurance market to crash!!!"

And I'd tax those UNPATRIOTIC bonuses into oblivion.

HAven't seen you around lately.

I guess you are busy not giving Goldmans Sachs a dime?

Of course the "crisis" didn't alter their behavior. When you get to make up your own rules, "crisis" is a feature, not a bug.

Why is that ok with the shareholders? Why isn't that money being used to fix problems and strengthen their companies? It is surreal. Why do these guys get to keep their same salaries (and then some) when the rest of us are making substantially less than we were (because you know the economy is rotten, and aren't you glad you even *have* a job). Meanwhile, nothing about the way they do business has changed except to become even more seedy than before... "the unapologetic pursuit of money remains as deeply rooted as ever". Indeed. It is infuriating.

I think that kind of framing is a straw man from Wall Street. I, also, unapologetically pursue money. I don't think the problem is that they pursue "money." It's that they pursued a colossal global-scale ponzi scheme, which then imploded into a black hole that is in immediate danger of sucking the rest of the economy down past its event horizon.

They're unapologetic crooks.

I have nothing against people (or companies) making piles of money either, it is the rapacious greed that gets me, the blatant disregard for people and general shortsightedness. All that seems unlikely to change soon enough though.

If you give it a thought deep and clear enough, any and all "unapologetic pursue of money" is part of this "colossal global-scale ponzi scheme" some call Empire, others Civilization, etc.

why should they change, in fact they should just increase the risk factor since to them it is no risk what-so-ever..

...the banks that were too big to fail are even bigger now. The rich, both corporate and government, are too importanat too suffer.

The result will be that we will be crushed under regulations that serve the corporations and the government.

Some will benefit, most will simply pay and suffer. I suspect the bailout money is going straight into the politicians pockets, Democrat & Republican. It's the only thing they know how to do.