Rioting In The Streets Yet?

Thanks to Rick Ackerman for the summary below...unbelievable stuff...Cheers, M

"Assuming Americans still have the capacity for outrage, they should be rioting in the streets following last week’s reports that nine big banks paid out $33 billion in bonuses in 2008. The Wall Street Journal put this travesty in perspective, noting that the bonuses were a third larger than California’s budget deficit. “Six of the nine banks paid out more in bonuses than they received in profit,’ the Journal reported, and “one in every 270 employees at the banks - [a total of 5,000 employees] –received more than $1 million.”

Compare these princely sums to the relatively paltry numbers associated with the government’s “cash for clunkers” program, which provides a U.S. voucher of up to $4,500 for motorists trading old gas guzzlers for new vehicles. Cash-for-clunkers ate through $1 billion of funding last week in its first four days, prompting Capitol Hill to approve yet another $2 billion, presumably before things turned ugly on the dealers’ lots. Talk about bread and circuses! If the cash-for-clunkers giveaway enjoyed the kind of backing the banks received via TARP, thousands of Americans who don’t have two nickels to rub together would be driving Bentleys, Ferraris and Lamborghinis.

Lest you think the banks are embarrassed by it all, it has been reported that Goldman Sachs, for one, is on course to pay $20 billion in bonuses in 2009 — an average of $700,000 for each and every employee. Over at Morgan Stanley, bonuses are up 30%, to an average $340,000; and at J.P. Morgan, the incentive pool for the first quarter alone has swelled by 175% to $3.3 billion.

These numbers came to light in a report issued by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo."

Share it...Cheers, M

This entry was posted on August 9th, 2009 at 12:49:01 am and is filed under Free Coaching & Training Articles, Investment Market Advisory.