WALL STREET BONUSES TO BE TWICE THE BUDGET OF DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Wall Street awards itself billions in Christmas bonuses

By David Walsh
19 December 2006

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Wall Street is awarding itself tens of billions in bonuses this winter. The fantastic amounts of money being handed out to investment bankers, securities traders and the like is symptomatic of the vast social divide that blights every aspect of American life.

Investment bank Goldman Sachs is leading the pack. The firm reported an increase in quarterly earnings of 93 percent and will distribute some $16.5 billion in bonuses to dozens of its bankers and traders. The top “rainmakers,” as they are called, will each take home as much as $20 to $25 million just in bonuses, “while traders who booked big profits will take home a chunk of those profits, up to $50 million apiece,” according to a December 13 article in the New York Times. The report cited the comment of one New York-based investment firm, “Anyone at the bonus line at Goldman Sachs died and went to bonus heaven. It doesn’t get any better than this.”

Another piece on the December 3 financial page of the Times suggested that bonuses are “expected to be a cash pile of more than $100 billion across the Street this year.” That estimate presumably includes companies of all sizes. Last year major investment banks and trading firms handed out $21.5 billion in year-end bonuses. Options Group, a New York executive search firm, predicted 2006 bonuses would rise 15 to 20 percent.

The staggering figure of $100 billion in total bonuses is more than twice the annual budget of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and nearly twice the US Department of Education budget. Washington spends $20 billion annually on foreign aid to the entire world. The yearly budget of the City of New York, which employs 250,000 people, amounts to $50 billion.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/dec2006/wall-d19.shtml

revolutions. He was part of a group of patriots who shook of the yoke of a bunch of people who felt that they were 'entitled' to the good life at the expense of the majority of the people.

Poor Tom.... getting dizzy spinning in his grave....

"Where have all the patriots gone...."

nope, it's just all the pissed off founding fathers spinning in their graves.

I think I hear them saying, "We sacrificed, we spent so much of our lives working to create, from the ground up, a NEW system, so many died to bring that system of government to fruition, and they're so scared that they will piss it all away??!!"

How we have let them down!

:cry:

that is a lot of money that did not go back to investors. nothing like ripping off the investors with their approval.

If Goldman sachs is giving themselves bonuses that large I can assure you the investors are more jubilent than you can possibly imagine. It means Goldman Sachs gave their clients one hell of a year.

Holy Crap Batman. We could run KBOO for a thousand years on that.

Practical applications -

We could give free college tuition to every student in the country.

We could buy a mobile home for every homeless person, and pay their lot rent for a year.

Imaginary applications -

We could send every illegal immigrant to a day spa. The logistics would be interesting.

Real world applications -

We could fund the Iraq war for 5 days

I'm so glad I was able to donate part of my retirement fund to make millionaires even richer. Maybe next year we can give them a nice chunk of our Social Security also. :sarcasm:

Now pardon me while I decide how to spend the measly $150 I got for a bonus.

that is exactly why 401k's were invented.

but not shocked. :eyes:

bonuses like that are absolutely just like income.

Literally: "There the dog lies buried" or "There's the rub"

Doesn't make sense, like the priorities we now have in this country.

and, is about even if you account for inflation.

Just keepin it real folks.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2658591&mesg_id=2658591

Can we keep these corrupt influences out of our party? The American people are looking to the Dems for a change in corrupt politics. Will we let them down?

Remember the Golden Rule:
Those who have the gold make the rules and the first rule is: more gold for those who akready have the most.
Just follow the money folks, watch the Republicans and Democrats who wallow up to the trough to get their share of this huge money pile.

The people in this "moneyed class" among us produce no valuable commodity, perform no vital service, yet they command the highest renumeration.

There will be a consequence to this, as evidenced by all other societies that lived by this short-termed vision of greed.

:eyes:

"The staggering figure of $100 billion in total bonuses is more than twice the annual budget of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and nearly twice the US Department of Education budget. Washington spends $20 billion annually on foreign aid to the entire world."

:shrug:

Over twenty years of my life have been spent enriching others with my labor and I have never received a Christmas bonus. Greedy assholes.

:grr:

:kick: