Friday, October 17, 2008

Going As Expected

It's nice to know how the bailout is really going to work as expected. As reported in Wall Street banks in $70bn staff payout, welfare for the rich continues unabated. If you run people's retirement savings and your own company into the ground, you can expect to be rewarded:
The sums that continue to be spent by Wall Street firms on payroll, payoffs and, most controversially, bonuses appear to bear no relation to the losses incurred by investors in the banks. Shares in Citigroup and Goldman Sachs have declined by more than 45% since the start of the year. Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley have fallen by more than 60%. JP MorganChase fell 6.4% and Lehman Brothers has collapsed.

At one point last week the Morgan Stanley $10.7bn pay pot for the year to date was greater than the entire stock market value of the business. In effect, staff, on receiving their remuneration, could club together and buy the bank.
Oh well, at least we'll know whom to beat and rob during the rood riots.

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