2007 Bonuses to Top Five Investment Banks Totaled $39 Billion

Last Year's Big Five Wall Street Bonuses

September 22, 2008 7:12 AM

As the Bush Administration asks for close to a trillion dollars to prevent a worldwide financial cataclysm, here are some numbers you might find interesting -- courtesy of the ABC News Research Center and ABC News' Barbara Paulson.

In 2007, Wall Street's five biggest firms-- Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley - paid a record $39 billion in bonuses to themselves.

That's $10 billion more than the $29 billion loan taxpayers are making to J.P. Morgan to save Bear Stearns.

Those $39 billion in bonuses were paid even though the shareholders in those firms last year collectively lost about $74 billion in stock declines --their worst year since 2002.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/09/last-years-big.html

I don't know what to say. I think I'm just too shocked that the American people are not rioting in the streets or constructing guillotines. I suppose everyone had their dose of soma this morning and are enjoying their ration of vegetable oil based chocolate.

And its neck and neck with the McCain v. Obama race for our night time horse race distraction.

The empire has crumbled.

Thanks for the thread, Jacobin.

These companies made profits trading the mortgage bundles that ended up being worth less. The profits went mostly into bonuses. Then when the bill comes due, when the real value of the defaulting mortgage loans becomes apparent, the companies don't have the cash to cover their actual value and ask for the government to bail it out.