Remember Hank Paulson's $810 billion program to save the world? It started off as a plan to buy toxic waste from banks. But as soon as it was passed, it changed into a scheme to buy stock in big banks -- some of which, like Citigroup (NYSE: C) -- are hugely unprofitable. This makes no sense to me -- I prefer cull and capitalize. With the election behind us, there's a chance to put some teeth into the plan by making sure that banks lend the money -- or refund our investment.

So far, the program has spent $159 billion for shares in 24 banks. But how are the banks using the money? Is it to make loans? No -- too risky. Is there anything stopping the banks from using it to pay bonuses? No. In fact, even if they don't use the cash from the Treasury's investment check to pay the bonuses -- our money will free up cash that would have been used for other purposes to pay those bonuses.

So how much of our money will bankers get this year? Well they received $33.2 billion in 2007 and forecasts are that they'll get 20% to 35% less -- or $26.6 billion -- for 2008. That's $147,556 for each of the 180,000 individuals who worked on Wall Street in 2007 (the number is lower now after layoffs).The banks created fake profits but they're getting huge bonuses. How so? Over the last couple of years, they reported $305 billion worth of profits but those have been wiped out by $323 billion in bad loans they charged off.

Continue reading Will our tax dollars pay $26.6 billion in Wall Street bonuses this year?

Will our tax dollars pay $26.6 billion in Wall Street bonuses this year? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 06 Nov 2008 10:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.