CHESSNOID

Wall Street Bonuses exceed Profit

Most Americans do not support the fraudulent bailouts passed under both the Bush and the  Obama administrations.  That is why there is always an uproar when we learn where some of the money went even though these companies are insolvent and haven’t been profitable for multiple quarters.  One of the main reasons people are against this moral hazard is that it is tax payer money going to support private for profit companies.  This even goes against the basic principles of capitalism and enterprise.

So here is the latest news on the bailout scams and where some of this money went.

Wall Street Journal: Bank Bonus Tab: $33 Billion

Nine banks that received government aid money paid out bonuses of nearly $33 billion last year — including more than $1 million apiece to nearly 5,000 employees — despite huge losses that plunged the U.S. into economic turmoil.

The data, released Thursday by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, provide a rare window into the pay culture of Wall Street, where top employees typically make 90% or more of their compensation in year-end bonuses.

The $32.6 billion in bonuses is one-third larger than California’s budget deficit. Six of the nine banks paid out more in bonuses than they received in profit. One in every 270 employees at the banks received more than $1 million.

Overall compensation and benefits at the nine banks fell 11%, to $133.5 billion in 2008 from $149.3 billion in 2007, the Cuomo report said. But with net revenues falling, the percentage of the firms’ revenues dedicated to compensation rose to 45% last year from 41% in 2007.

The report reignites long-simmering anger, on Capitol Hill and beyond, over big Wall Street payouts. The nine firms in the report had combined 2008 losses of nearly $100 billion. That helped push the financial system to the brink, leading the government to inject $175 billion into the firms through its Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The chairman of the U.S. House investigative panel, New York Democrat Edolphus Towns, called the pay figures “shocking and appalling” and announced a hearing into compensation practices at banks.

The White House was more muted. “The president continues to believe that the American people don’t begrudge people making money for what they do as long as…we’re not basically incentivizing wild risk-taking that somebody else picks up the tab for,” said White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs.

By the way Robert Gibbs is another idiot who really is out of touch with the American public or in denial. We do not support paying tax payer funded million dollar bonuses or  compensation packages to CEOs and executives to insolvent companies.