Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sacs, two of what has been referred to recently as the banking criminal syndicate, reported earnings this week and decided to share the details of the compensation for their employees as well.
The average pay for the year at Goldman Sacs came in at $498,153. They crushed all previous annual bonus records in 2009.
Morgan Stanley reported a 2009 profit of $1.15 billion and paid out $14.4 billion in bonuses to its employees. They paid out 62% of total revenue in bonuses. They also broke all bonus records in 2009.
As I have discussed, these firms have borrowed over $1 trillion from the Federal Reserve at 0% interest. They have used that money to massively leverage back into risky bets and pay enormous bonuses.
The emergency unemployment numbers this morning came in at astounding record highs once again.
1 out of 8 Americans and 1 out of 4 American children are currently on food stamps.
A lady I work with in my office lost a good friend of her family's last night. She gave her only son his name. He took his life yesterday because of the current economic hardship he has been facing with his inability to find work.
I would look for the anger and the tea parties to grow as we move forward. I would also be very nervous if I was a banking executive in New York City. I see the possibility of child kidnappings, similar to what you see in Mexico City, as a major problem in the future.
