Despite losing billions in 2008, 4,793 bankers and brokers who work there got paid at least $1 million. Many of these folks worked at firms that lost money. Where did the companies get the money to pay the bonuses if they lost money? Was it from a government bailout – $700 billion TARP?
The worst of the group is Citigroup and Merrill Lynch. Citi paid 738 bankers and traders at least $1 million in 2008 even though it lost $27.7 billion it paid $5.33 billion in bonuses. Merrill Lynch which lost $2.76 billion in 2008 while paying $3.6 billion in bonuses. Merrills new parent company, Bank of America, paid a total of $3.3 billion in bonuses on $4 billion in earnings.
Then there were the winners who made money in 2008 and paid themselves the biggest bonuses, which resulted in the companies reporting a loss – Goldman Sachs Group, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan Chase:
· 953 Goldman bankers and traders took home bonuses worth at least $1 million it earned $2.3 billion and paid bonuses totaling $4.8 billion;
· 428 Morgan Stanley employees got bonuses over $1 million it earned $1.7 billion and paid $4.5 billion in total bonuses; and
· 1,626 JPMorgan employees got bonuses of at least $1 million in 2008 it earned $5.6 billion and paid $8.69 billion in bonuses.
What stock investors sometimes miss is that these companies are run for their employees not for shareholders.Heres a great comment from an unrelated post:7-23-2009 @ 9:40AMBHarrison said
The reality of our national economic situation is that our primary and most prestigious financial institutions orchestrated what amounts to massive fraud and pyramid schemes that undermined our economy, and continue to undermine our economy. The American people are tacitly allowing our Federal government to further undermine our economy by bailing out the criminal management who orchestrated these frauds and thefts. The end result is the devastation of our businesses and the loss of jobs and job opportunities for all Americans, especially the younger generation. The pivotal question is how long will the American people tolerate the government allowing these criminals to continue profiting from the crimes that they orchestrated and perpetuated? The American people need to vote the vast majority of Congressmen out of office if they want to break the influence of the financial corporations and the pharmaceutical industry on our government. Anyone who thinks that the government is the solution obviously is overlooking the fact that all of these economic problems occurred because the government failed to exercise reasonable and prudent oversight and management of the financial institutions and the pharmaceutical industries.