BONUS!

[Kramer]

i wonder if there is a class divide in this country?



New York Attorney General Hits Banks on Executive Pay
Companies Set Aside Billions for Management Bonuses
By JOSEPH RHEE and MADDY SAUER
October 29, 2008—


New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo says nine financial services firms must provide "detailed accounting" of expected bonus payments to top management. In a letter sent today to the banks' boards of directors, Cuomo requested "any and all information" concerning the firm's expected 2008 bonus pool both before and after they learned that they would be receiving taxpayer funds. Click here to see the letter to Morgan Stanley.

The banks, including Bank of America, Bank of New York Mellon, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Merrill Lynch & Co., Morgan Stanley, State Street Corporation, Wells Fargo & Company, and Goldman Sachs, have reportedly set aside $108 billion for employee compensation this year, despite being beneficiaries of a $250 billion federal bailout program. Experts have said bonuses at the rescued major banks will be higher because of the injection of taxpayer money.

"Obviously, we will have grave concerns if your expected bonus pool has increased in any way as a result of your receipt...of taxpayers funds," Cuomo wrote to the boards. "Boards of directors must step up to the plate and prevent wasteful expenditures of corporate funds on outsized executive bonuses and other unjustified compensation.

Attorney General Cuomo has been investigating executive compensation at Wall Street firms. His office recently reached an agreement with the insurance firm AIG where the company said it would freeze millions of dollars of payments to former CEO Martin Sullivan and other executives.

In recent days Congress too has taken up the issue of executive bonuses. A House committee has opened an investigation into the matter, and today Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said he planned to introduce a bill to cap executive salaries at banks receiving federal aid.

[Arlos]

Their companies would have been dead without intervention. What the fuck have ANY of their management staff done to earn ANY bonuses?

That is utterly fucking ridiculous.

-Arlos

[ClakarEQ]

Their companies would have been dead without intervention. What the fuck have ANY of their management staff done to earn ANY bonuses?

That is utterly fucking ridiculous.

-Arlos

Yes but it is the American way of sorts. As an example, I work for an auto supplier company, we've been downsizing for 2 years, in '07 we closed several plants, I lost 2 IT guys in those forced reductions, the company profit was near zero, HOWEVER, because of the restructuring rules and how money gets moved, I had the largest MIB (management incentive bonus) I've ever had (very low 5 digits), normally it would be 3-4k. Point being is they shift cash from P&L to things like restructuring, so even though profit was near zero because it cost a ton of cash to close the plants, the "loss" was placed into a restructuring bucket and removed from the "loss" column leaving the appearance of a very profitable year. BTW I'm not a finance guy and this is how I saw it, that doesn't mean that is the true reality of it.

BTW, the CEO whom I know got a massive MIB, turns out, he parted from the company in early '08 :p

That has always been my point to why I don't agree with folks that say people are "equal", or this attitude of "take care of number one" and "be selfish", etc. I look at what this guy did, and yeah in a way I was part of it, so WE got a good MIB at the cost of 300 lost jobs.

[Martrae]

Their companies would have been dead without intervention. What the fuck have ANY of their management staff done to earn ANY bonuses?

That is utterly fucking ridiculous.

-Arlos

/agree

[Arlos]

See, Clakar, that's why I think those bonuses on bad years are crazy. How many jobs could have been saved if those bonuses weren't paid? How many people are out of work and can't feed their families, just to subsidize that CEO's bonus, when obviously he must have been doing a shitty job if the business was doing that badly?

I'm all for bonuses being paid out when companies are doing well, and are actually highly profitable. It gives people something to strive for, etc. But when things AREN'T going well, it's bonuses that should be cut first, not jobs.

-Arlos

[ClakarEQ]

I agree with you and I felt like I just got dirty or hush money, but I'm not going to lie and say I didn't' cash the check :\. It isn't like if I were to tell the company, hey, you know, I don't feel right about this, I don't want it, I'm confident that would have put me on a radar screen of HR and not being a "team player", and "one of THOSE guys". If I was more financially set, if I didn't have negative equity, if my wife worked and wasn't a stay at home mom, if if if, etc.

Frankly the pressure that companies put on people today, I feel I'm constantly being put in a position that many times is a polar opposite with my ethics . If I knew I could quit my job and get a similar paying one, I would, but frankly I'm stuck and the man has his thumb on me hardcore.

[Lueyen]

Frankly the pressure that companies put on people today, I feel I'm constantly being put in a position that many times is a polar opposite with my ethics . If I knew I could quit my job and get a similar paying one, I would, but frankly I'm stuck and the man has his thumb on me hardcore.

It's not like you are just looking out for number 1, sounds to me like you are looking out for number 2, 3....(however many children you have). A word of advice if I may however, in some aspects it's much easier looking for a new job when you currently have one. Yes you have to be careful that word doesn't get around, but at the same time you don't feel the financial pressure to take the first offer that comes along especially if you haven't found something early on.

[Gaazy]

We decided to give our shop employees a little 1000 buck bonus a few weeks ago because they worked their ass off and beat a big deadline and had the equipment built and delivered 2 weeks ahead of schedule, they deserved it. Those top bank guys, im sure, did not.

[Kramer]

true dat.