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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2009
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6

Wall Street Forking Out Record Pay

Pay at top firms expected to hit $140B as markets rebound

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(Newser) – Major financial firms have bounced back from the brink of meltdown and are on course to hand out their biggest-ever pay packages this year. The total payout at the big banks and securities firms will hit $140 billion this year, according to Wall Street Journal projections based on revenue figures at 23 companies. That's up 20% from last year, and is a full $10 billion more than was paid out in 2007.

Payouts might fall below projections at firms feeling public and political pressure over inflated bonuses, the Journal notes. But now that they've regained their confidence, most firms insist that high pay is necessary to hang on to their top talent. "The easiest way to destroy the firm would be if we didn't pay our people," said a Goldman Sachs spokesman. "Destroying a profitable enterprise would not be in anybody's interest."

People exit the the Financial Square building following a Goldman Sachs shareholders meeting in New York.
People exit the the Financial Square building following a Goldman Sachs shareholders meeting in New York.   (AP Photo/ Louis Lanzano)
People walk to work on Wall Street in New York. This year's pay at top firms is predicted to be up 20% from 2008.
People walk to work on Wall Street in New York. This year's pay at top firms is predicted to be up 20% from 2008.   (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, file)
Happy days are here again for the big Wall Street firms.
Happy days are here again for the big Wall Street firms.   (©Photos8.com)
Wall Streeters are swimming in cash.
Wall Streeters are swimming in cash.   (©borman818)
Payout packages at major banks and securities firms will hit $140 billion.
Payout packages at major banks and securities firms will hit $140 billion.   (©gierszewski)
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Compensation played a role in the financial crisis, and yet nothing has changed. - University of Denver Professor
J. Robert Brown

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6 comments
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Rocket448
Oct 14, 09 1:50 AM CDT
These guys are at the top of my list of people who just don't give a shit about anyone else. They have no idea what people think about them or their greed, and they just don't give a shit. Reply
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+6
SemperFI
Oct 14, 09 6:36 AM CDT
WTF. You think that after they caused the economy to collapse they would be a little less brazen. But no. When you have a friend in the Treasury anything goes. This is Wall Streets version of "Jon and Kate" Reply
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+1
Snowleopard
Oct 14, 09 6:37 AM CDT
This is a direct result of TARP and federal reserve policies that flooded wallstreet with credit, based on the trickle-down economics fallacy. If you saturate banks with easy money, it won't magically get credit flowing, it'll just make the banks rich. Most of the monetary expansion should have been done in the form of stimulus, so that it gave the working class jobs, and injected money into mainstreet. We're literally giving these banks money at next to zero percent interes, and then they've been turning around an buying foriegn T-Bills with that money at about 5% interest! No wonder income inequality is so bad in this country. Reply
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+4
odowd80
Oct 14, 09 9:42 AM CDT
I love how they refer to their failed institutions as "profitable enterprises." The logic they use is a tad flawed. The quote above says, "The easiest way to destroy the firm would be if we didn't pay our people," and yet their firms would have been destroyed last year (if not for the bailout) DESPITE the massive pay packages. Reply
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+3
IN RESPONSE:
Rocket448
Oct 14, 09 11:45 AM CDT
And yet, the owners insist that high wages plus bonuses = top talent. Unless I miss my guess, these are the same "best people" who nearly wrecked our economy last year!?! According to my values, those "best people" should be looking for another job in another sector. When its Best People turn out to be selfish, grasping, and greedy and cause chaos in our precious markets, are the root cause of crippling job losses not to mention home foreclosures, America has lost its way.
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