Posted on 12/21/2007 1:14:32 PM PST by ex-snook
NEW YORK - This might have been one of Wall Street's most dismal years in a decade, but that hasn't stopped bonus checks from rising an average of 14 percent.
Four of the biggest U.S. investment banks — Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Bear Stearns Cos. — will pay out about $49.6 billion in compensation this year. Of that, bonuses are traditionally estimated to represent 60 percent, or almost $30 billion.
But that might not sit well with investors who held on to investment bank stocks this year _ and watched them plunge by up to 45 percent. Investment houses have been slammed by the credit crisis, and top executives this past week said they've yet to see a bottom.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Not so good for people who invested in real estate.
What is this “bonus” thing they speak of? It sounds like their company just gives them money for no reason. I don’t understand it.
Hey, those guys at Goldman Sachs that made their firm about $10B by essentially shorting the housing market, ought to get a nice stocking stuffer this year.
It’s going to have to last them for awhile.
As a matter of fact, my boss DID say "up yours!"
(Just kidding)
Hmmm...I’m not one to complain about bonuses, but the share prices of all these companies have decreased. Shareholder value is the number one purpose of a publically traded
As an investor in some of them, and a Morgan Stanley client, I’m annoyed.
BTW...I own a small (15 persons) business. We gave our employees over a $1000 each for Christmas, before we even looked at bonuses for the officers.
Here’s the REAL story: Many on Wall Street have become LIBERALS...easy money often begets Liberal Guilt. I’m more annoyed that a bunch of elite Democrats are getting bonuses while their shareholders suffer.
That explains the stock market the past two days. Even for an option expiration the intervention both private and public was pretty obvious.
**** we have a winner ******
Aw, ya beat me. That was too easy.
I’m the boss, and I didn’t pay me a bonus this year. I got the workers each a gift certificate, though. (And no, it wasn’t the “Jelly of the Month Club”!)
Speaking of which: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1K8-kNuDgoA
4 times what it was last year.
You bought all the KY Jelly, didn’t you?
Beats me but maybe Toddster can help. Perhaps he can tell just how Wall Street companies make so much money and who is really getting hosed.
Not so, my friend.
The Dow is up 8% year-to-date, and NASDAQ is up 10% year to date.
CNBC, the main financial news source in the country, has been trying to push the economy into recession the past three years, even longer.
Yet employment remains at record highs. Corporate profits remains at record highs.
Personal and family income just hit record highs, and the Gross National Product GNP just came in at a 4.9% growth rate, and will probably be revised upwards as it has in most quarters the past few years.
Consumer and retail spending in November had the best month in four years, and set another record.
Exports and imports are growing exponentially, bringing with it profits for millions of Americans.
Did Morgan Stanley or Merrill Lynch or CitiGroup have good years? Nope.
But relatively speaking, they are a small segment of the economy.
Thank heavens the Fox News Network has started a competitive finance channel to rebutt CNBC with some fair and balanced economic news showing the economy is OK, and NOT in depression like CNBC implies day after day.
In the 1990s, liberal oriented CNBC did pie-in-the-sky fantasy stories month after month after month, thereby pushing investors to believe the Clinton economy was fabulous, when it in fact was built on phantom earnings from AOL, Lucent, Juniper, Microsoft, Cisco, Global Crossing, and dozens of other companies whose market value was in the billions yet they were running red ink year over year over year.
When a company give a bonus to employees, that is a good thing.
One always has the option of selling their stock, or quitting if they don't like the 'private' decisions made by private capitalist companies.
Fee income and trading income.
and who is really getting hosed.
Who is really getting hosed where?
What is this “bonus” thing they speak of? It sounds like their company just gives them money for no reason. I don’t understand it.
A lot of these guys are only making $500,000 or $750,000 a year. The real money — the $2 million or or $3 million — is in the bonus, which is (ideally) based on performance.
you make a lot of good points about some networks trying to wreck the economy but if bonuses are (ideally) based on performance and their stock is down 40-50%, I think the stock holders have a point in asking “what’s up with that?” . Also they are not private decisions made by private companies. They are public decisions made by MANAGERS (not owners) for the shareholders. If I don’t like a decision made by one of my managers I should be allowed to question it.
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