Quote from ByLoSellHi:
Stay on point much, Daal?
WTF does your example have to do with grossly unappreciative people who got bonuses that are probably larger than what 97% of Americans who are honest, hard working people get as salaries in a year, and then bitching about how unhappy they are with the amount, after they blew it on performance?
First of all, where is your data in support of the claim that 97% of Americans are hard working and honest and the vast majority of of Wall Streeters are overpaid crooks?
Second, most Americans aren't forced to live in the NYC area, so you have to adjust all the compensation on Wall Street for the fact that a 1200 sq. foot apartment rents for $6K/month and that tax rates in NYC reach close to 50% and parking your car in your building costs $500/ month. So, while the comp looks high, the expenses are astronomical.
Third, most Wall Street employees don't make that much money. The only crap they print in the paper is fantasy shit that only the very top guys make. When I was in equity research, the NYT published a fake stat that said the average analyst made $1MM in comp. We howled with laughter. The relevant statistic is the median comp and it wasn't anywhere close to $1MM. Since Wall Street ALWAYS divides comp into bonus and base - even for secretaries - the fact that people got bonuses is not surprising because nobody would ever agree to work for the base. You could be a trash collector and make more than base comp and have a better lifestyle to boot.
Finally, MOST Wall Street employees had absolutely zero to do with any of the bad decisions top managment made. The decision to make Merrill the leading bank for subprime bullshit was Stanley O'Neil's goal and anyone who didn't go along with Stan got fired. Why should the options trader who busted his ass and made a ton of money for the firm be punished for Stan's decisions? In fact, if you don't pay the good traders, they will simply leave. And don't kid yourself - people who know how to make money for others will ALWAYS find a job or find investors.
Personally, I think all these banks should have been allowed to fail. If the financial system is so damn fragile that it requires this kind of bailout, then it should be scrapped entirely and a new, competitive system should be allowed to emerge from the chaos. But as long as we're going to subsidize this shitty system with taxpayer dollars, we should at least not create a scenario where good workers are incentivized to leave. That will only lead to more and more expensive future bailouts.