Sorry to hear your bonus was reduced by 59 Million Bucks.
I stand in amazement that the greed still continues, that in this day and age when more moral fiber is needed it’s no where to be found. I grow tried of bailing out someone only to have that same person sodomize me for it! I have no problem with someone making a good living, hell I’ve got no problem with a bonus. But, if you loaned a friend $500.00 so they could pay their rent and feed the family and a few weeks later (when they haven’t paid you back yet) you go to their house and see a new couch! It’s probably going to upset you.
The evil corporate banker. The one that’s more concerned with his board of Directors rather than the folks that feed him the money that allow him to make the investments necessary for him to cash his paycheck. Leading the charge (at least by my estimation) is Lloyd Blankfien, he’s the CEO of Goldman Sachs. He’s receiving a 9 million dollar stock bonus – 9 million! Here’s the math, that’s 58,000 shares of restricted stock that can’t be cashed in for five years. So he’s got to wait five years for any kind of payday, but I think he’ll be okay as it would seems according to a small amount of research he made around 25 million in the prior year. So a 9 million dollar stock option bonus is certainly a change and he will most likely have to stop getting his 3rd caramel latte macchiato’s on Fridays for at least a week – but you know something… life is about sacrifice!
But I don’t want to just pound on the bones of Mr. Blankfien, it wouldn’t be fair, he’s no the only offender. JPMorgan Chase & Co. said CEO Jamie Dimon received a $16 million stock bonus! Unlike Lloyd, Jamie will not have to forgo his 3rd caramel latte macchiato’s on Fridays (can you smell the sarcasm?).
At the end of the day here’s what ticks me off. Again it’s not that the earn the money they earn. They get paid big because they are big, after all Under Blankfein’s leadership, Goldman earned a record $4.79 billion profit in the last three months of 2009.
What gets me the most is that there is a disconnect between the top and the bottom. It was the bottom that bailed out the top paving the way for Guys like Blankfein & Dimon to turn their profits – so maybe this may have been a good year just to make due with your weekly salary. No instead they accept huge bonus’ even if they are only paper bonus’. These big corporate banks still owe the US money and they are taking bonus’ (see my ealier example about your friends new couch). But because we’re not in a country like China that can have these broad reaching regulations that nip this kind of stuff as soon as it comes up we’re left scratching our asses and wondering if anyone out there is paying attention. Yes, the Obama administration is going to levy some sort of a tax on these banks, but we’re Americans – we want immediate gratification! We want a coliseum erected and we want the offending bankers to battle the middle class (or lions – who ever isn’t unionized). I don’t want stories about what we’re going to do, I just want it done and I want my money back!
If you stop and think about banking is like an old saying “penny for your thoughts”, but when you want to weigh in you have to “put your 2 cents in”. What happens to the additional penny, where does it go? It’s greed, that’s where it goes – he with the most toys when he dies wins. Well we’ve got to break that mold, at least while they’re surviving on our bailout cash. After we’re paid back – I don’t care. You want to give some CEO a 50 million dollar bonus – I’ve got nothing to to say, except maybe – what the hell is up with that!
