Despite the collapse of the financial system, the shuttering of several major firms and the elimination of thousands of jobs, the securities industry managed to scratch together about $18 BILLION of shareholder and investor cash to pay bonuses in 2008, according to New York state comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.
“The decline is the largest on record in absolute dollars and the largest percentage decline in more than 30 years, but the size of the bonus pool is still the sixth largest on record,” DiNapoli said in a press release.
The chart above makes it obvious as to when the height of irresponsibility began, and on whose watch.
More than the other statistic, this chart alone shows why we are in today’s mess.
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January 30, 2009 at 8:11 am
Rebuild the Delaware GOP
Were these bonuses part of an employment contract agreement?
January 30, 2009 at 9:26 am
kavips
That is a good question. I did not hear any mention that they were, but would have expected to have heard something, had they been legally contracted.
Unfortunately I will leave that for others to find; I don’t have the time to do.