AIG Execs Repaying $50M in Bonuses: Cuomo

Big finance could face populist pitchforks

(NEWSER) - Bailed-out Wall Street execs handing themselves hefty bonuses this month should prepare for outrage not only from Dems inside the Beltway but from tea partiers, who hold their first convention in Nashville next month. The rage that has been focused on big government and health care reform could easily swing toward Wall Street, Gerald Seib writes in the Wall Street Journal . More»

(NEWSER) - Some AIG executives in Europe think the demands that they return their bonuses are tantamount to "blackmail," Reuters reports. In fact, a compliance officer for Banque AIG unit in London asked UK authorities to determine whether the demands for repayment constitute extortion. He encouraged others in an email to hold off repaying until they got an answer. An AIG spokesman said that concern "was not shared by the company." More»

Will he reveal AIG names?

(NEWSER) - Andrew Cuomo’s political career has hit a crossroads, the New York Times reports. The New York attorney general has found his moment, slinging subpoenas at Wall Street like a populist avenger. He’s forced concessions from the rating agencies and student loan lenders, and pried the names of bonus recipients from AIG and Merrill Lynch, to widespread applause. But what will he do with that popularity—and those names? More»

Wall Street workers finding it difficult to get by, or so they say

(NEWSER) - Wall Street bankers received smaller bonuses this month, and it is really hard for them. If you're having trouble dredging up any sympathy, perhaps that's because you just don't understand what it's like to be in the 1%: "People who don’t have money don’t understand the stress," one Marks Paneth & Shron partner explains. "Could you imagine what it’s like to say, 'I got three kids in private school, I have to think about pulling them out?' How do you do that?" Bloomberg says that cuts to 2011 discretionary pay were at least 25% at Goldman Sachs and Barclays and that cash bonuses were capped at $125,000 at Morgan Stanley, but the New York Times says bonuses have been "merely bruised," and that total payouts are predicted to drop just 14% this bonus season. More fairly unbelievable tidbits from Bloomberg's tales of woe: More»

Matt Taibbi says bankers are still overpaid

(NEWSER) - Matt Taibbi was incredulous when he read a recent New York piece in which Wall Street denizens whined that Dodd-Frank was limiting their bonuses. "I watch what I spend," one banker lamented, "but my girlfriend likes to eat good food," which adds up fast. "Quelle horreur!" Taibbi quips in Rolling Stone , before shredding the argument. Actually, bank compensation is falling because of the European debt crisis. Bankers he knows are saying things like, "If the ECB doesn't come up with a Greek bailout package, I'm going to have to sell my children for dog food." And at some banks (like Goldman Sachs), bonuses are actually up relative to earnings. More»