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3rdgensooner
12/22/2010, 12:20 PM
The Truth About Wall Street Bonuses in 2010: A Survey (http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/wall-street-bonuses-2010#ixzz18rUebwYP)

http://www.esquire.com/cm/esquire/images/OC/esq-wall-street-bonuses-2010-xlg.jpg



Even after being sent up to Capitol Hill and down again into the ignoble trenches of recovery, it was a great year for bankers: record revenues (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-13/wall-street-sees-record-revenue-in-09-10-recovery-from-government-bailout.html), salary increases, cute new nicknames from Matt Taibbi — it was almost like 2008 never even happened. The money kept flowing. Yet, for some of the denizens of Wall Street still small enough to fail, the cash kickbacks amounted to a new trend this bonus season: "the Zeros," or those supposedly snubbed of the bonuses they expected.

But you can't believe everything the Times tells you (http://dealbreaker.com/2010/12/wall-street-grappling-with-how-to-give-out-zero-dollar-bonuses-without-upsetting-recipients/), even if the Street's biggest firms set aside more than the GDP of 13 entire countries (see left). You believe the people. So we went to the financial district late last week asking every banker we could find — at the bars, on the street corners, out front of a steakhouse — to take a short, unscientific, yet revealing survey. Given guys like Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman, who's promising to take any employees leaking bonus information to the media and escort them out of the building himself (http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/stormin_gorman_zhngh5sFzIA2uJapljLSJJ#ixzz18NlphcW I), it wasn't easy, but we still found 98 respondents (81 men and 17 women) who were willing to talk.

Here's what they told us.

My Opinion Matters
12/22/2010, 03:06 PM
I can't believe a picture involving pie and boobs hasn't gotten more responses.

3rdgensooner
12/22/2010, 03:30 PM
iknowryte

Fraggle145
12/22/2010, 03:36 PM
$0-$25K That is more than my entire salary. ****'em. ****'em right in the ear. Boo-****in-hoo.

DIB
12/22/2010, 03:44 PM
$0-$25K That is more than my entire salary. ****'em. ****'em right in the ear. Boo-****in-hoo.


I earn a bonus every year, because of my hard work. Some of it is tied to company success and some of it is tied to personal goals. If I reach my own goals and help the company reach it's goals, then I feel I deserve my bonus. If these Wall Street types are doing the same, then they deserve it.

If Company X would have made $1 Bill, but I helped them make $2 Bill, don't I deserve a piece of that? Why should all that money go to shareholders, when I am doing all the work?

Not everyone in the finance industry is evil. In fact, many of us didn't fail or take money from the government. Many wanted the government not to bail out crappy banks/wall street firms. The government shouldn't reward bad behavior. The other banks/firms should have been allowed to benefit from running their companies the right way.

3rdgensooner
12/22/2010, 03:46 PM
Not everyone in the finance industry is evil.
Perhaps not, but you are.

DIB
12/22/2010, 03:49 PM
Perhaps not, but you are.

True, but that is unrelated to my professional position.

Penguin
12/22/2010, 03:56 PM
If I reach my own goals and help the company reach it's goals, then I feel I deserve my bonus.


So does every single working stiff in America.

dwarthog
12/22/2010, 04:01 PM
I can't believe a picture involving pie and boobs hasn't gotten more responses.

What pie?

I Am Right
12/22/2010, 04:03 PM
Mine's BIG!

My Opinion Matters
12/22/2010, 04:07 PM
So does every single working stiff in America.

But we're not all as important as that guy.

texaspokieokie
12/22/2010, 04:11 PM
I can't believe a picture involving pie and boobs hasn't gotten more responses.

too much pie,not enuff boobs.

dwarthog
12/22/2010, 04:25 PM
So does every single working stiff in America.

Was the bonus an agreed upon part of their compensation package with stated achievement levels?

If so and they upheld their side of the deal, then they deserve to get the bonus.

hipsterdoofus
12/22/2010, 04:59 PM
Evil rich people...how dare they be rewarded for achieving...

Now...if the company was spending money it didn't have for huge bonuses...well...crap, that would kind of be like the govt spending money it didn't have...

AlboSooner
12/22/2010, 05:04 PM
LOl at the notion that Wall Street has achieved. Unless "achieving" means running the economy into the ground and suckering the government to bail you out, then proceed not to loan money to small businesses but rather give expensive bonuses to themselves. Yeah ACHIEVEMENT!!!

Wealth is never created in vacuum.

cccasooner2
12/22/2010, 05:05 PM
Wanted to put in the Christmas Vacation rant but no sound. :(

mgsooner
12/22/2010, 05:09 PM
If only people knew what type of bonsues people in the O&G industry are getting these days...

hipsterdoofus
12/22/2010, 05:14 PM
People always want someone to be mad at...

Bourbon St Sooner
12/22/2010, 05:19 PM
LOl at the notion that Wall Street has achieved. Unless "achieving" means running the economy into the ground and suckering the government to bail you out, then proceed not to loan money to small businesses but rather give expensive bonuses to themselves. Yeah ACHIEVEMENT!!!

Wealth is never created in vacuum.

It's easy to "achieve" when you're taking your interest free gov't loan and, instead of loaning that, putting it into a stock market that is being propped up by the Fed printing presses.

DIB
12/22/2010, 05:22 PM
LOl at the notion that Wall Street has achieved. Unless "achieving" means running the economy into the ground and suckering the government to bail you out, then proceed not to loan money to small businesses but rather give expensive bonuses to themselves. Yeah ACHIEVEMENT!!!

Wealth is never created in vacuum.


So, you know all the people in Wall street that received a bonus? You know what their contractual goals were and whether they met them? You wouldn't possibly be making an unfair generalization of an entire industry based on the failing of a subset of that industry.

Maybe the government should get out of the business of propping up bad businesses (failing banks, firms and car companies) and then people that do good work wouldn't get demonized based on the industry they work in.

AlboSooner
12/22/2010, 05:45 PM
So, you know all the people in Wall street that received a bonus? You know what their contractual goals were and whether they met them? You wouldn't possibly be making an unfair generalization of an entire industry based on the failing of a subset of that industry.

Maybe the government should get out of the business of propping up bad businesses (failing banks, firms and car companies) and then people that do good work wouldn't get demonized based on the industry they work in.

Are you serious? Subset? Lol. The cornerstones of WS failed so the govt bailed them out for being too big to fail. People have short memories! you remember the threats of the Great Depression returning if we didn't *bailout Wall Street you don't do that only for a subset of the industry you do that if the whole system has gone wrong.

My Opinion Matters
12/22/2010, 06:00 PM
Overrated: Neocons
Underrated: Anarchocapitalists

GKeeper316
12/22/2010, 06:06 PM
Evil rich people...how dare they be rewarded for achieving...

they dont get bonuses for profits. they get bonuses based on the amount of trading they did, whether or not those trades made money.

deregulating the banks was dumb as ****. thank you phil gramm, you worthless ****in ****-holster.

Tony
12/22/2010, 06:16 PM
Maybe the government should get out of the business of propping up bad businesses (failing banks, firms and car companies) and then people that do good work wouldn't get demonized based on the industry they work in.

Awesome idea. The American people are going to love paying $20 for a gallon of milk.

hipsterdoofus
12/22/2010, 06:18 PM
Awesome idea. The American people are going to love paying $20 for a gallon of milk.

And everyone else would enjoying paying less for corn if they govt didn't make the supply low by subsidizing ethanol production...

My Opinion Matters
12/22/2010, 06:24 PM
And everyone else would enjoying paying less for corn if they govt didn't make the supply low by subsidizing ethanol production...

Have you ever been inside a supermarket? 95% of what we buy/eat is a reconstituted corn product.

yankee
12/22/2010, 06:30 PM
$0-$25K That is more than my entire salary. ****'em. ****'em right in the ear. Boo-****in-hoo.

then you need a new job.

soonercoop1
12/22/2010, 06:45 PM
So, you know all the people in Wall street that received a bonus? You know what their contractual goals were and whether they met them? You wouldn't possibly be making an unfair generalization of an entire industry based on the failing of a subset of that industry.

Maybe the government should get out of the business of propping up bad businesses (failing banks, firms and car companies) and then people that do good work wouldn't get demonized based on the industry they work in.

Agreed as they made it much worse by not allowing (too big to fail) or interfering (GM) with BK's....seems taxpayers have to pay for all of the governments failures and many corporate failures...change you can believe in...:rolleyes:

sperry
12/22/2010, 07:12 PM
Lol @ Wall Street actually doing anything. If by doing anything you mean creating bogus financial instruments based on bad debt, then taking a middle position and pawning them off on mutual funds and pension funds.

Or maybe acting as underwriter on public offerings, and selling the stock way below its market price to other firms, in exchange for getting to do the same thing on their public offerings a few years down the line. The whole thing is a joke.


Also, the 40% statistic is probably a joke. The people working at bulge bracket banks will have gotten bonuses for sure. There are a lot of firms that are technically hq'd on Wall Street that really aren't movers and shakers.