Friday, December 21, 2007

Yeah, about that "culture of welfare" ...


Shocked, shocked, I am, by such unexpected developments:

As Wall Street bleeds from mortgage crisis, bonuses spike 14 per cent

NEW YORK - This might have been one of Wall Street's most dismal years in a decade but that hasn't stopped bonus cheques from rising an average of 14 per cent.

Four of the biggest U.S. investment banks - Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Bear Stearns Cos. - will pay out about $49.6 billion in compensation this year. Of that, bonuses are traditionally estimated to represent 60 per cent, or almost $30 billion.

But that might not sit well with investors who held on to investment bank stocks this year - and watched them plunge by as much as 45 per cent. Investment houses have been slammed by the credit crisis and top executives this last week said they've yet to see a bottom.

Dear whiny wingnuts -- feel free to lecture us once again all about, you know, accountability, and personal responsibility, and stuff like that there.

Really, I need the entertainment.

3 comments:

thwap said...

They revalued all their paper downwards after they handed out their bonuses.

Ti-Guy said...

We're all just jealous because we weren't in front when the cash-grab started.

What a kleptocracy.

E in MD said...

bu..bu..but.... Bill Clinton! Liberals! Mexicans! War on Christmas! Terrorists! Boooooo! booooooo! Vote Republican or nuclear bombs will fall into your bathtub!