A Suggestion for 2008 Pay Packages on Wall Street

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<p>[Banks</a> Owe Billions to Executives - WSJ.com](<a href=“http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122542331644887249.html]Banks”>http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122542331644887249.html)</p>

<p>[Securities</a> Firms Tackle Pay Issue - WSJ.com](<a href=“http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122540927284586151.html]Securities”>http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122540927284586151.html)</p>

<p>Now that you are receiving $750 billion of taxpayer money, here’s a suggestion for Wall Street and its bonuses in 2008. Don’t make any. Share the pain that the rest of the country is feeling as a result of your gross recklessness.</p>

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<p>[GOLDMAN</a> SACHS BRASS STILL LIVING IN THE PAST - New York Post](<a href=“GOLDMAN SACHS BRASS STILL LIVING IN THE PAST”>GOLDMAN SACHS BRASS STILL LIVING IN THE PAST)</p>

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<p>I don’t think the bonuses are going to stop. I don’t think they are deserved in most cases. Many are based on profits that have never occured and will never occur.</p>

<p>But, like I said, I think bonuses are going to happen anyway; although the following is one way to get rid of bonuses. Close departments down.</p>

<p>[Bloomberg.com:</a> Worldwide](<a href=“Bloomberg Politics - Bloomberg”>Bloomberg Politics - Bloomberg)</p>

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<p>Gee, thanks, Hawkette. There goes my blood pressure …</p>

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<p>dstark,</p>

<p>I think you would love these two stories.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/19/opinion/19dowd.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/19/opinion/19dowd.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>[Goldman</a> Sachs ready to hand out £7BILLION salary and bonus package… after its £6bn bail-out | Mail Online](<a href=“Goldman Sachs ready to hand out £7BILLION salary and bonus package... after its £6bn bail-out | Daily Mail Online”>Goldman Sachs ready to hand out £7BILLION salary and bonus package... after its £6bn bail-out | Daily Mail Online)</p>

<p>excerpts:</p>

<p>Just when we thought executives of A.I.G., the insurance giant bailed out by taxpayers for $123 billion, had been shamed into stopping their post-bailout Marie Antoinette spa treatments, luxury sports suites, Vegas and California posh resort retreats, we were dumbfounded to learn that some A.I.G. execs were cavorting at a lavish shooting party at a British country manor.</p>

<p>London’s News of the World sent undercover reporters to hunt down the feckless financiers on their $86,000 partridge hunt as they tromped through the countryside in tweed knickers, and then later as they “slurped fine wine” and feasted on pigeon breast and halibut.</p>

<p>The paper reported that the A.I.G. revelers stayed at Plumber Manor — not the ancestral home of Joe the Plumber, a 17th-century country house in Dorset — and spent $17,500 for food and rooms. The private jet to get there cost another $17,500, and the limos added up to $8,000 more.</p>

<hr>

<p>Goldman Sachs ready to hand out £7bn salary and bonus package… after its £6bn bail-out
By Simon Duke</p>

<p>The struggling Wall Street bank has set aside £7billion for salaries and 2008 year-end bonuses, it emerged yesterday.
Each of the firm’s 443 partners is on course to pocket an average Christmas bonus of more than £3million.
The size of the pay pool comfortably dwarfs the £6.1billion lifeline which the U.S. government is throwing to Goldman as part of its £430billion bail-out.
As Washington pours money into the bank, the cash will immediately be channelled to Goldman’s already well-heeled employees. </p>

<hr>

<p>If this is the reward for failure, how do you compensate them for success?</p>

<p>Robert Dare is right. These guys have to be psychos.</p>

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<p>Well Canuckguy… great links, but I don’t love these stories. :)</p>

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<p>The corporate pay situation in the US has been a problem for quite some time. Attempting to reward for long-term performance has been a failure. I do blame boards of directors and shareholders (yes, that includes me) for not demanding reform.</p>

<p>There are companies where I think this behavior isn’t a problem (those that pay high dividends, Berkshire Hathaway, etc.) but most are short-term thinkers that take the money and run.</p>

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<p>How about the FNMA or Freddie Mac exec pay: Millions and millions for failing unspeakably. What a resume these guys have. I’ll bet they get a great job with high pay even though imho they “stink”. They have enough to live in splendor for quite a while. </p>

<p>As for public companies that do this, especially when they lose the stockholders’ money, I think either “incompetence” or breach of fiduciary duty, corporate waste, and perhaps a few felonies. Of course, even though others share this opinion, we don’t have that support from those who can do something about it.</p>

<p>Ok that’s my rant.</p>

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<p>OMG!! bonuses could be down 30% this year!!! Do you realize that means if you were paid $1mm last year you will ONLY get $700,000 this year? How will you survive?</p>

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<p>What a bunch of socialists you all sound like. Stop trying to spread their wealth around!</p>

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<p>I am no socialist. I do not advocate “spreading” either. I am just tired of seeing those who failed the trust of those who invested their money rewarded.</p>

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<p>I should have added a J/K, as that was utterly tongue-in-cheek.</p>

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<p>O-H, silly me.</p>