Wednesday 28 January 2009

Welcome To Your Aneurism!

Below is a cut and paste of a Reuters article which the NY Times published. If you can get through even the first sentence without that little vein on the side of your head between your ear and your eye swelling to about 9 times normal size, you are calmer than I. This was the 6th largest bonus pool ever, rewarding the performance that lost the most value out of the economy. EVER. Most of it lost by the freaking asshats who are going to divvy up this 6th largest bonus pool on record. Why was there any bonus pool? How about these guys donate this all to the Treasury, instead of dumping all the bailout liability on average chumps like me? WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT?

You want to know why the world is f-d up? Compensation. You don't get what you ask for in the world, you get what you compensate for. You want to make pay schemes such that people are driven to produce messed up outcomes that put multiple generations at risk? What do you think you are going to get?

Everyone ought to also read about that DABA crap. Yes, it's true. Yes, the women who started it are getting a book deal.

If we killed everyone who is at this moment wearing French cuffs, how good of a head start do you think that would give us?

Enjoy:

"Wall Street firms slashed cash bonuses for New York City employees by 44 percent in 2008, as they reeled from record losses in the securities industry, New York State’s comptroller said in a report issued on Wednesday.

Bonuses fell to $18.4 billion from $32.9 billion in 2007, the largest decline ever and the biggest percentage drop in more than 30 years, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said. The size of the bonus pool is the sixth-largest on record, he said.

Losses from traditional broker-dealer operations of New York Stock Exchange member firms topped $35 billion in 2008, more than triple the record set a year earlier, Mr. DiNapoli said.

Meanwhile, Wall Street shed 19,200 jobs, or 10.2 percent, in New York City over the last 14 months, ending the year with 168,600 workers.

The declines reflect the souring of the global economy and credit markets, as well as the disappearance of the traditional Wall Street investment banking model.

What were the five largest Wall Street banks no longer exist in the form they began 2008. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley became commercial banks, Bear Stearns was bought by JPMorgan Chase, Lehman Brothers ) went bankrupt and Merrill Lynch was acquired by Bank of America.

JPMorgan and the ailing Citigroup are also based in New York.

Lower bonuses also cut into tax revenue, at a timewhen Gov. David A. Paterson and legislators are trying to slash a potential $15.4 billion budget deficit over 14 months. Mr. DiNapoli said tax revenue could fall by nearly $1 billion in New York State and $275 million in New York City from lower bonuses.

The comptroller said the industry’s problems could worsen, despite an influx of hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money from the federal Troubled Asset Relief Program.

“The industry is still continuing to write off toxic assets,” Mr. DiNapoli said in a statement. “It’s painfully obvious that 2009 will probably be another difficult year.”

Mr. DiNapoli said the average Wall Street bonus fell 36.7 percent, to $112,000 in 2008. The average decline was smaller than the drop in the overall bonus pool, he said, because the pool was shared among fewer workers as jobs were cut."

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dude, I think you lost every one of us there. :-)

Anonymous said...

Whachoo talkin' 'bout, Willis?

GamJams said...

The CEO of Lehman also just spent (like, last week) $1.2 million to redecorate his office. That's after his firm reported a $15 Billion loss, which was reported AFTER the bailout funds given to it and Bank of America allowed for the merger.

He is rumored also to have been seen on Tuesday night group rides in Central park wearing a brand new pair of $450 Mavic Zxellium Ultimate road shoes.

Chuck Wagon said...

C & A - point being, if normal people had the kind of year that wall street had, our 'bonuses' would be pink slips. These knuckleheads still get more as a bonus in their worst year ever than many of us will earn this decade.

Mike - the only option we have is a field trip up there and gutter him hard.