Wall Street pay soars to record levels. Got a job yet?
From the Wall Street Journal (Subscription req.):
“Major U.S. banks and securities firms are on pace to pay their employees about $140 billion this year — a record high that shows compensation is rebounding despite regulatory scrutiny of Wall Street’s pay culture.
Workers at 23 top investment banks, hedge funds, asset managers and stock and commodities exchanges can expect to earn even more than they did the peak year of 2007, according to an analysis of securities filings for the first half of 2009 and revenue estimates through year-end by The Wall Street Journal.”
Total compensation and benefits at the publicly traded firms analyzed by the Journal are on track to increase 20% from last year’s $117 billion — and to top 2007’s $130 billion payout. This year, employees at the companies will earn an estimated $143,400 on average, up almost $2,000 from 2007 levels.”
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Guides
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2011 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
203 comments Add your comment
Dave R.
October 14th, 2009
1:02 pm
First?
Kamchak
October 14th, 2009
1:02 pm
Brother, can you spare a bailout?
Dave R.
October 14th, 2009
1:03 pm
Yes!
So what? As long as they are being compensated according to what the free market determines they are worth, what do you care?
Wealth envy is so ugly.
Finn McCool
October 14th, 2009
1:05 pm
Dow at 9,979?
Where is I report with his dire warnings and “the end is near” scenarios?
Mrs. Godzilla
October 14th, 2009
1:05 pm
This does not pass the smell test……
Dave R.
October 14th, 2009
1:07 pm
Of course, even the Wall St. gravy train will come crashing to a halt once Hope & Change’s policies destroy the value of the U.S. dollar.
No wonder they didn’t give him the Nobel prize for Economics.
Scooter
October 14th, 2009
1:07 pm
Dang Dave R., I’m getting slow!
Finn McCool
October 14th, 2009
1:08 pm
You know where those profits are coming from, right?
Bank fees. Credit card fees. Late payment fees. Did you get the letter recently that they were raising fees on everything? They have us bent over.
Hello, my name is Ben Dover.
Scooter
October 14th, 2009
1:09 pm
I knew I should have chosen a different career path. Whew!
Finn McCool
October 14th, 2009
1:11 pm
Well, I shouldn’t complain about the high credit card fees. Perhaps the high fees will get people to think twice about charging everything on the “pay-em-later” plan.
Dr. DryFinger, ObamaCare Health Csar
October 14th, 2009
1:12 pm
Ya’ll haven’t seen nothing yet.
Dave R.
October 14th, 2009
1:13 pm
Better luck next time, Scooter!
Unfortunately, being first a couple of times means I’m spending wayyyyyyy to much time on this blog . . .
Scooter
October 14th, 2009
1:14 pm
Hello, my name is Ben Dover.
Looks like we all have the same name.
@@
October 14th, 2009
1:14 pm
Got a job yet?
I do, but no doubt a lot of Americans are feeling like they got milked by the Obama Administration.
I can’t say as I blame ‘em. That’s, in fact, what happened.
They’ll learn albeit rather slowly.
joe matarotz
October 14th, 2009
1:16 pm
Here are Cbama’s top 20 campaign contributors:
University of California $1,591,395
Goldman Sachs $994,795
Harvard University $854,747
Microsoft Corp $833,617
Google Inc $803,436
Citigroup Inc $701,290
JPMorgan Chase & Co $695,132
Time Warner $590,084
Sidley Austin LLP $588,598
Stanford University $586,557
National Amusements Inc $551,683
UBS AG $543,219
Wilmerhale Llp $542,618
Skadden, Arps et al $530,839
IBM Corp $528,822
Columbia University $528,302
Morgan Stanley $514,881
General Electric $499,130
US Government $494,820
Latham & Watkins $493,835
Hmmm. Goldman Sachs. Citigroup. JP Morgan Chase. Morgan Stanley. If you can’t smell a rat here, you’re probably a lib.
The new definition of insanity: Watching the current administration do the same thing the previous administrations have done and expecting a different result. (AKA Hope and keep the change)
Scooter
October 14th, 2009
1:17 pm
Unfortunately, being first a couple of times means I’m spending wayyyyyyy to much time on this blog . . .
AMEN! Me too! It is raining out though.
Finn McCool
October 14th, 2009
1:18 pm
joe, now post the top contributors to McCain in 2008 and the top contributors to Bush in 2004 and 2000.
Your argument is weak.
Lord Help Us
October 14th, 2009
1:22 pm
Apparently, the Dow has been driven higher by Obama’s ’socialist’ agenda…ironic, huh?
Scooter
October 14th, 2009
1:22 pm
Hmmm. Goldman Sachs. Citigroup. JP Morgan Chase. Morgan Stanley. If you can’t smell a rat here, you’re probably a lib.
Dang Joe, you are going to burst Mrs. G’s bubble!
Joan
October 14th, 2009
1:27 pm
Another whining liberal, complaining because he didn’t get a piece of this particular pie. Get another job if you don’t like your pay.
Finn McCool
October 14th, 2009
1:28 pm
oh my, NPR just played some of the Bob Dylan Christmas album. Sounded like a B-movie actor in the throes of death.
I might have to pass on that purchase.
Scooter
October 14th, 2009
1:29 pm
Enter your comments here
Joey
October 14th, 2009
1:29 pm
How could that low-life Bush let this happen? Hang him. Now.
Joey
October 14th, 2009
1:31 pm
Can’t Chris and Barney do something? Please?
Bosch
October 14th, 2009
1:32 pm
Dave R.,
I don’t care how much they make as long as they don’t come crying back for another bailout.
Brad Steel
October 14th, 2009
1:32 pm
Dave R. gives us this hackneyed right-wing regurgitant: As long as they are being compensated according to what the free market determines they are worth, what do you care?
The free market determined that most, if not all, of the big banks would be out of business if it were not for government bailouts on the backs of taxpayers.
Phu-leeze get some new platitudes, Dave. R
danjonglee
October 14th, 2009
1:33 pm
“Democratic members of the House of Representatives now represent most of the nation’s wealthiest people, a sharp turnaround from the long-standing dominance that Republicans have held over affluent districts” USA Today
Got to pay to play…….
Bosch
October 14th, 2009
1:33 pm
Oh, forgot something:
and we don’t let those companies get too big to fail (whatever that means), so we’ll be forced to bail them out when they get out of control again.
Scooter
October 14th, 2009
1:33 pm
How could that low-life Bush let this happen? Hang him. Now
Joey, you know darn well that Raygun started this whole mess!
Taxpayer
October 14th, 2009
1:35 pm
Job! Ewww. That implies working. Again, ewwww! Besides, I would not want to deprive a conservative family valued Republican the opportunity to get out there and do that sort of stuff and pay taxes on their earnings and such.
Normal
October 14th, 2009
1:36 pm
Dr. DryFinger, Better than a cold finger, I’m guessin’
stands for decibels
October 14th, 2009
1:37 pm
joe, now post the top contributors to McCain in 2008
McCain’s top five contributors for his 2008 campaign were investment firms.
Taxpayer
October 14th, 2009
1:41 pm
I wonder how much tax revenue all those ‘earnings’ and ‘profits’ will generate.
@@
October 14th, 2009
1:44 pm
The Wall Street ties are troubling to some advocates for investors. “Where is the transparency this administration promised?” asked Lynn Turner, a former chief accountant at the SEC. “You just wonder, who is representing middle Americans?”
““““““““““`
kneegarrs??? I must admit, that one made me laugh.
No, Jesus h…I dislike politicians who claim to be above it all.
I could say I feel sorry for all those who were duped but I don’t. There comes a time when people must learn to accept the consequences of their actions. The saddest part is they took the rest of us down with their ship of tools.
Scooter
October 14th, 2009
1:46 pm
Am I the only one having a problem with this page? Or, is just operator error as usual?
thinking man
October 14th, 2009
1:46 pm
Of course, even the Wall St. gravy train will come crashing to a halt once Hope & Change’s policies destroy the value of the U.S. dollar.
No wonder they didn’t give him the Nobel prize for Economics.
You can blame the majority of the devaluation of the dollar on GOP policies that borrowed into oblivion to pay for tax cuts we couldn’t afford (of which about 90% went to the wealthiest people and the rest of us got the bill!). The triple play of Reagan, Bush & Bush2 generated about $10T in debt and that fact cannot be disputed.
Turd Ferguson
October 14th, 2009
1:46 pm
Finn McCool
October 14th, 2009
1:08 pm
I thought our lord and savior jesus christ obobo had taken care of all that with his sweeping credit card reform? Oh thats right…HE MADE IT WORSE!!
Enjoy Obobo voters.
N.J.
October 14th, 2009
1:48 pm
This has been going on ever since Republicans dismantled the tax controls on executive compensation during the six Reagan years that Reagan was president, and Republicans controlled the House and there was a closely divided Senate with a tiny Democratic majority. The Republican Myth of “small government” has basically been debunked by a Texas Republican who finally realized that Republican assertions are a myth:
Republican, Democrats, National Debt, and Fiscal Responsibility
I was born in Texas and raised in Oklahoma in a very conservative, Republican household. I was raised believing that Republicans are for small government and low taxes. I was raised to believe that only the Republicans shared my Christian values and they had the safety of our country well in hand. Democrats, by contrast, wanted the government to fix everything, wanted to raise everyone’s taxes, were pro-abortion, and would do nothing to protect our country.
As I got older, I began to question whether the Republican Party has lived up to what it professes. I believe in all the things they profess: I believe in having strong national security, I believe in the sanctity of life, I believe in fiscal responsibility. But what I’ve found in my research is that the Republicans don’t put these values into practice.
We can also get an idea of how “big” government is by looking at the national debt as a percentage of GDP (or, to put it another way, how much the government is spending relative to everyone else). Republicans advocate for small government.
They portray the Democrats as people who want big government. Looking at the facts, we see that government spending is biggest when a Republican president is in office. Republicans historically have bigger governments than Democrats.
Five out of the eight presidential terms held by Republicans since 1945 have seen an increase in government spending as a percentage of GDP, an increase in the size of the government.
Zero of the seven presidential terms held by Democrats since that time have seen an increase in the size of the government. In fact, every single Democratic president since 1945 has reduced the size of the government by reducing the amount of national debt as a percentage of GDP.
Since 1946, Democratic presidents increased the national debt an average of only 3.2% per year. The Republican presidents increased the national debt by an average of 9.7% per year.
Republican presidents out-borrowed and out-spent Democratic presidents by a three-to-one ratio. Putting that in very real terms, for every dollar a Democratic president has raised the national debt in the past 59 years, Republican presidents have raised the debt by $2.99.
Looking further at federal spending, we find that between 1978 and 2005, Democrats increased federal spending by 9.9% while Republicans increased federal spending by 12.1%.
Further, in the same period, Democrats increased the national debt by 4.2% whereas the Republicans increased it by 36.4%.
It is true that the Republicans held 4 terms during this time while Democrats only held 3. However, looking at each president since 1978, we see that Reagan increased the national debt by a whopping 89.2% during his two terms. You read that right, Reagan nearly doubled the national debt in 8 years.
http://bunkinthewest.wordpress.com/2008/09/04/republican-democrats-national-debt-and-fiscal-responsibility/
The facts. Democrats have never increased the size of government relative to GDP. Republicans have always increased the size of government relative to GDP.
Like I always say, if you are looking for fiscal responsibility, vote for a Democrat. Any Democrat. Its a sure thing that they will spend less overall, borrow less overall, and eventually balance the budget.
Republicans just keep talking one thing, and doing the exact opposite.
DannyX
October 14th, 2009
1:49 pm
These bonuses are terrific!
Now if we can just get Congress to act. We need to get people back to work. We need to get them good paying jobs. Unfortunately the recession has taken a heavy toll on white male Republicans like myself. My Cobb County neighborhood has taken an extreme hit. All over sit ex-bread winners sitting at home in our McMansions hoping for a break. There is not going to be one. The $75,000.00 a year job is becoming extinct.
That’s where Congress comes in. Obama and Congress have given the financial business a nod and a wink when it come to serious reform. Because of their inaction, the same things are going to happen again. We need to be ready next time.
Fellow Republicans, lets be ready for the change in leadership that is coming in 3 years. Lets make sure we get ours next. Make sure our Republican candidates support the Suburban Recovery Act. We can set up entitlement zones in places like Cobb and Gwinnett, places decimated by Bush’s Great Recession. These zones would have special minimum wage guidelines to assist in the recovery. Any laid off worker that was previously making $75,000 or more would receive a minimum wage of $100 an hour for the jobs they are forced to take at Home Depot and Publix.
Compassionate conservatism that works, (at Home Depot.)
Turd Ferguson
October 14th, 2009
1:53 pm
“Workers at 23 top investment banks, hedge funds, asset managers and stock and commodities exchanges can expect to earn even more than they did the peak year of 2007, according to an analysis of securities filings for the first half of 2009 and revenue estimates through year-end by The Wall Street Journal.
Total compensation and benefits at the publicly traded firms analyzed by the Journal are on track to increase 20% ”
20%? Thats pretty darn good and unlike the bellyaching Obobo voters I hope their 20% increase is enjoyable. We hear at my employer received no salary increases this year. If one was bonus eligible, which the Turd is, then a bonus was handed out. YYIIIPPPEEEEE!!!
Congrats to the 20%’ers.
Maybe next year will be The Year of the Turd!!
Scooter
October 14th, 2009
1:54 pm
You can blame the majority of the devaluation of the dollar on GOP policies that borrowed into oblivion to pay for tax cuts we couldn’t afford (of which about 90% went to the wealthiest people and the rest of us got the bill!). The triple play of Reagan, Bush & Bush2 generated about $10T in debt and that fact cannot be disputed.
See Joey, I told you Raygun started this whole mess!
Joey
October 14th, 2009
1:55 pm
Scooter:
It is a “run-on” Right-wing conspiracy. The world is just gosh darn lucky that Clinton caused that hiccup.
mm
October 14th, 2009
1:56 pm
Dave R,
Yep, the greedy executives at the greedy corporations love how morons like you defend their outrageous salaries.
Retirement accounts and home values were wiped off the books for millions of hard working Americans, but the executives still got their bonuses for doing such a “great” job.
I’m glad the GOP has one foot in the grave. We won’t have to put up with stupid people like Dave R. much longer.
Hillbilly Deluxe
October 14th, 2009
1:57 pm
The more things change the more they stay the same.
On campaign contributions by the investment firms: They contribute to everybody’s campaign, so no matter who wins they have a seat at the table. There’s blood on both sides hands.
Scooter
October 14th, 2009
1:59 pm
Maybe next year will be The Year of the Turd!!
I think I have seen that somewhere before. Oh, I know, it was on a Chinese place matt!
Joey
October 14th, 2009
1:59 pm
Scooter:
It’s just a “run-on” Right-wing conspiracy. The world is gosh darn lucky that Clinton caused that hiccup. Otherwise Bush the First would have overseen this. Of course the Usual Suspects (Frank, Dodd, Waters, Rangel, Reid, Pelosi, etc.) would have skated free still.
Scooter
October 14th, 2009
2:03 pm
I’m glad the GOP has one foot in the grave. We won’t have to put up with stupid people like Dave R. much longer.
I think the pot is calling the kettle black!
Stan
October 14th, 2009
2:05 pm
Nope, still no job for me or my wife…
Normal
October 14th, 2009
2:06 pm
SCOOTER, Please give that Chinese mat a mercy flush
DannyX
October 14th, 2009
2:06 pm
I think a lot of you may have misinterpreted Obama.
It’s not “Change and Hope,” it’s “Change or Hope.” If you didn’t get your change, then you just weren’t scheduled to get any. Those that remain on the “hope,” side really need to get this through your thick skulls. The Democratic Party needs loyal hopers. Next election cycle the Democratic theme changes to “One of These days. We hope.”