Wall Street Wages and Bonuses Eat 10% of Total Bailout Handout

I offer mainly comments through imagery today, dear readers; digesting this article from UK's Guardian made me feel far too angry to lurch into a regret-filled and sordid soliloquy. Kindly read the quotation below, then follow the link to the entire story. A might be a good idea to grab the Tums first...

Financial workers at Wall Street's top banks are to receive pay deals worth more than $70bn (£40bn), a substantial proportion of which is expected to be paid in discretionary bonuses, for their work so far this year - despite plunging the global financial system into its worst crisis since the 1929 stock market crash, the Guardian has learned.

Staff at six banks including Goldman Sachs and Citigroup are in line to pick up the payouts despite being the beneficiaries of a $700bn bail-out from the US government that has already prompted criticism. The government's cash has been poured in on the condition that excessive executive pay would be curbed.

Pay plans for bankers have been disclosed in recent corporate statements. Pressure on the US firms to review preparations for annual bonuses increased yesterday when Germany's Deutsche Bank said many of its leading traders would join Josef Ackermann, its chief executive, in waiving millions of euros in annual payouts.

The sums that continue to be spent by Wall Street firms on payroll, payoffs and, most controversially, bonuses appear to bear no relation to the losses incurred by investors in the banks. Shares in Citigroup and Goldman Sachs have declined by more than 45% since the start of the year. Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley have fallen by more than 60%. JP MorganChase fell 6.4% and Lehman Brothers has collapsed.

At one point last week the Morgan Stanley $10.7bn pay-pot for the year to date was greater than the entire stock market value of the business. In effect, staff, on receiving their remuneration, could club together and buy the bank.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/17/executivesalaries-banking/print

I do not begrudge any working person wages, including those still punching a clock at SHAMECO on Wall Street. It's got to suck to have to work there now, knowing (as they do) that no other business wants to hire anybody coming from financial houses or the mortgage companies. Wait... don't forget the only reason any of these ex-rainmakers have a job at all is thanks to John and Janet Taxpayer; these firms would be ruined in scandal if not for the trillion dollar federal handout. But how can any employers pay discretionary bonuses above and beyond salary when firms' losses for the year add up in the billions of dollars? Somehow, the words 'discretionary' and 'entitled' must have taken on other meanings of which I was not previously aware. As we chug from this virtually unpalatable keg of gin and ether, keep in mind that these huge bonuses were paid out in 2007 as well, even as firms like Merrill and Lehman were declaring billions in write-downs.

Dammit, America, we are being torn a new one. We teach our elected officials how to treat us, their constituents. I think if there was ever a time to get old-school on our representatives it's now. Right now. My father and my father's father would never have put up with the way we're being treated... what about yours? Fellow Americans, it is up to US to declare that the new school is in session. No one will do this for us. Make a decision to make your thoughts and feeling heard. Start here; use the comments section on this blog post. State your case. Let it out. Rip on me if you want to. Participate in things that concern you. Start today. Maybe America needs a King and a Queen, whom we can deify and can do no wrong, so we can start holding our elected officials accountable for their actions.

I'll leave you with one more thought for today... why do you suppose Americans have to discover facts like these courtesy of media outlets from outside the United States??