Just when you think you've heard it all, you hear more. In the last year, Wall Street -- or more specifically, the brokerage units of New York financial companies -- lost $35 billion. (Worldwide, financial institutions have taken $1 trillion in write-offs of bad assets). Those firms received a large proportion of the $350 billion TARP and persuaded the Treasury to guarantee losses from hundreds of billions worth of their financial toxic waste. Their reward? $18.4 billion in bonuses.
How much of the TARP went to paying for those bonuses? The banks have cleverly neglected to report that. But let's face it -- money is fungible. So if they did not use the money from the deposits they received from the Treasury to pay bonuses, our tax dollars freed up cash they may have had from other sources that did go to paying those $18.4 billion in bonuses.
And, to be fair, some of those bonuses were paid partly in stock -- which in virtually all cases has lost value so far this year. In 2007, bonuses hit a record $32.9 billion on losses of $11.7 billion -- so this years' bonuses were down 44%. But thanks to all the Wall Street job cuts, the average bonus declined a mere 36.7% to $112,000.
These figures reveal something important about Wall Street firms. They are run for the benefit of the employees, not shareholders. Without paying those bonuses, Wall Street would have earned a profit in 2007 and its loss for 2008 would have been sliced in half.But thanks to Wall Street's absolute power over the U.S., the very people who got us into the biggest financial catastrophe in 100 years got rewarded with $18.4 billion of our tax dollars. Maybe it's time for a change. What do you think?
Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College. Portfolio recently published his eighth book, You Can't Order Change: Lessons From Jim McNerney's Turnaround at Boeing.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-29-2009 @ 12:14PM
Uri said...
We should view TARP as similar to the auto bailouts. Many of these bonuses are contractually obligated and, as Thain argues, they have no choice but to pay out the bonuses. If we give the banks the legal power to not pay these bonuses, then these numbers might fall much quicker. The employees of these companies claim that it is only fair for them to receive those bonuses for this reason, but should the US government be providing bonus insurance and if so, should it be limited to the financial sector?
In a political climate where large numbers are hard to keep track of and the value of borrowing more has fallen to nothing, I suspect that such inefficiencies will continue to exist for a long time, at the expense of future taxpayers. We could provide $350 billion in TARP with bonuses or $330 billion in TARP without. What's $20 billion with such large numbers floating around but lost votes?
1-29-2009 @ 1:07PM
BHarrison said...
It's time for "change" . . . a return to bonuses being based upon "sound profitability", and ethical and legal business practices.
Of all of the people who "deserve to become unemployed" it is these corrupt "middlemen" who have been involved in peddling the fraudulent "derivatives', and the pyramid and Ponzi schemes that have caused the collapse of our economic system. When a company like Catepillar lays off 20,000 employees, the Wall Street companies should be laying off 100,000 employees PERMANENTLY . . . we don't need these "hucksters" pushing "bad paper" and worthless stocks. yeah, it IS time for a change. "INTEGRITY" must be instill in the corporations, and the markets/funds.
1-29-2009 @ 1:13PM
BHarrison said...
Another point that was mentioned on NPR yesterday is that the FIs and corporations are using TARP monies to hire HUNDREDS of lobbyists, to pay "bonuses", and to contribute to politcal groups and candidates. This is unconscientionable . . . they are using the TARP monies to further defraud the American people. As was suggested on the show, companies that receive TARP monies should be prohibited from hiring lobbyists, paying bonuses and other compensations, or making political contributions.
if this was done; and if the companies were required to repay all TARP monies before they could hire lobbyists, pay bonuses, or make political contributions, it would surely REDUCE the corporate applications for TARP monies.
Congress should act in regard to these matters . . . BUT our CORRUPT Congressmen are not likely to do that, are they?
2-16-2009 @ 10:26AM
Kaara said...
Because BOA purchased ML and wanted to retain the employees there were "retention bonuses" paid, provided the employee did not leave the firm. This is usually done in large acquisitions, and probably was necessary. As for the bonuses for performance...well...usually a performance bonus is based on a pre determined target and if that target is met, the bonus is paid, and increases as the target is exceeded. These were probably not tied to the overall profit of the company, but rather the individual or unit performance. Based on the money they pocketed for the bad paper they pushed on the unsuspecting investors, I'm sure many of them exceeded their targets and "earned" their bonuses!
These usually are in writing and contracted for; however why were they paid in late December instead of January as always?? That is the mystery.
3-18-2009 @ 5:07PM
prejr said...
Let's say that Congress is really to blame considering they repealed on Nov 12, 1999 the Glass-Steagall Act of 1932 & 1933. That act was in place to stop deflation, expand Federal Reserve ability to offer rediscounts on more types of assets and to address the collapse of a large portion of the American commercial banking system... Sound familiar... And it was a bipartisan bill...
Phil