While the rest of us are facing the extinction of our way of life, Wall Street is having a bumper year.
Goldman Sachs to Make Record Bonus Payout This Year
Staff at Goldman Sachs staff can look forward to the biggest bonus payouts in the firm's 140-year history after a spectacular first half of the year,
Citigroup Is Said to Be Raising Pay for Workers, by 50%
The shift means that most Citigroup employees will make as much money as they did in 2008, although some might earn more and others less. The company also plans to award millions of new stock options to employees in an effort to retain workers and neutralize a precipitous drop in the value of their stock holdings.
Banker's Pay Soars
Wall Street names that have been among the most buffeted in recent months – Merrill Lynch, UBS and Citigroup – are hiking pay for their top investment bankers in an attempt to stop an exodus of talent.
I realize these excesses have been pointed out by other bloggers, but I just don't understand why more people aren't outraged. I realize there is people concern themselves about these days, but this is huge. Really huge. The banks are leaching off our economy. We will not be able to institute reforms in healthcare, reduce carbon emission, and guarantee social security if we allow our economic productivity to be diverted to the over bloated financial sector.
It appears bankers have increased their salaries because they have garnered implicit government backing of all future losses. Why the hell not give yourself a pay raise if you can never be allowed to fail?
I'd like a little reassurance from the community that something can be done or will be done about this. I want to believe that our government is not completely impotent and is not owned by the banking industry.
I just don't understand why more people aren't outraged. If democrats can't reign in the excesses of the banking industry, then who is going to do it? If Democrats who control all branches of the government why can't we slice up these 'too big to fail' banks into more manageable entities, then who is going to do it?
I donated my hours and my money helping to get Democrats elected to all branches of government because I firmly believed they were better than their couterparts. I still do believe that, but I am dissappointed that our party leaders are seemingly duped by Wall Street.
It is obvious that the remaining banks are operating as oligopolistic entities. They should be broken up with anti-trust laws just like AT&T was in the early 1980's.
David Williams, an investment banking analyst at Fox Pitt Kelton, said: "This year is shaping up to be the best year ever for investment banks, or at least those that have emerged relatively unscathed from the credit crisis.
"These banks are intermediaries in the bond markets where governments and companies are raising billions of pounds of new money. There is also a lack of competition that means they can charge huge sums for doing business."
Last week, the firm predicted that President Barack Obama's government could issue $3.25tn of debt before September, almost four times last year's sum. Goldman, a prime broker of US government bonds, is expected to make hundreds of millions of dollars in profits from selling and dealing in the bonds.
WTF? Seriously, I don't even know what to say to that.