Never stand between a banker and a bag of money. Despite their massive losses, bankers are still raking in enormous bonuses.
The Guardian reports that the House of Mack, Morgan Stanley has set aside $3.9 billion, or 72% of its net revenues, to pay bonuses. That's despite the investment bank reporting a loss of $1.26 billion in the last quarter after paying back $10 billion government investment under the Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. Chief executive John Mack reckons the bonuses will "help deliver better results". They certainly won't be for performance pay.
But Morgan Stanley is not Robinson Crusoe here. Other banks, which had received taxpayer funded bailouts, are doing it too. As the Washington Post reminds us, that's likely to attract the ire of Congress and we can expect the politicians introducing measures to bring the banks back into line. As the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee Barney Frank told the Post, the amounts of money are "troubling".
Well obscene actually. What's troubling is the banks' arrogance.
no comment untill now