Banker Bonus Bingo, Great Recession-Style: Every Card's a Winner

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from Too Much: A Commentary on Excess and Inequality:



Banker Bonus Bingo:
Every Card's a Winner
Can excess on Wall Street ever be ended? Maybe. Some lawmakers in France have a plan that could end it.

October 19, 2009

By Sam Pizzigati


America’s biggest banks, amid the shakiest economic times since the 1930s, last week announced record profits — and deposited record billions into bonus pools for their top executives and traders. How did U.S. lawmakers and officialdom respond?

In Congress, a pivotal House committee gave the green light to a Wall Street regulatory reform bill that “does not do enough,” disappointed consumer advocates quickly charged, “to protect taxpayers and our economy.”

The nation's top executive pay regulator did some disappointing, too. “Pay czar” Ken Feinberg, the White House pick to oversee pay at the nation’s biggest bailed-outs, last week convinced soon-to-retire Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis to give up his $1.5 million 2009 salary. Why did Lewis agree? He gets to walk away, at year end, with a retirement package worth $69.3 million.

Welcome to post-meltdown America. One year and counting after last fall’s high-finance collapse, average Americans are reeling and Wall Street is rejoicing. The boom's back!

In fact, for Wall Street’s premiere financial giant, business is booming better than ever. Goldman Sachs last week announced $3.19 billion in third-quarter earnings, about quadruple the firm's quarterly profit a year ago. Goldman now has $16.7 billion sitting in its bonus pool.

That pool, by the end of December, will likely top off close to $23 billion, enough to pay each and every Goldman Sachs employee over $700,000 if the bonus dollars were divided equally. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.toomuchonline.org/articlenew_2009/oct19a.html

[rucky]

1. That's a fantastic newsletter you found!

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2. I love the Too Much pieces.....

..... they tackle the inequality and imbalance that are at the core of so many of our problems.

[burning rain]

3. Top Democrats seem to have reckoned....

that if they let Wall Street gorge at the trough, they'll have their support, while folks of less means will have no alternative, anyway. The Republicans--who ya kidding?