Banks Set For Record Pay

"Top thirty eight firms on pace to award $145 BILLION for '09, WSJ Study Finds." Compensation climbs as the rich get richer, the poor get screwed and the middle class incomes stay stagnant.

The reasons for the big bonuses? Rising stockholder values. Sure, they are/were. Here are some examples: Morgan Stanley stock was trading at $62+ in January of 2007 - selling around $30 today. Goldman Sachs was trading at around $350 a share in January 2007 - today around $164. Bank of America stock was trading at around $51 in January of 2007 - today around $16 a share.

Another reason for billions in bonuses for 2009? They worked hard. Give us a break. Most people work harder under more stressful conditions than any stockbroker ever worked in their lives.

So the stocks were trading lower from 2007-08 and in 09, with massive intake of TARP billions, the stock rose. But what about the people who were believing the "analysts" and following their advise of "buy and hold"? They have lost stock value of 50% or more.

Now Obama, "seething" in public, maybe smiling in private, wants to tax the banks.
Sure tax them and the financial giants will get their money back by raising fees, cutting already low dividends and reducing the return to shareholders.

If the media had the guts, they would publish how much Obama and all congresspeople receive in contributions and from who and how the "who" are connected. Our paper has discontinued publishing contributions for local incumbents and their challengers.

Yet the media complains about lack of transparency. Unfortunately, most medias no longer print the facts, they print what sells and even that isn't keeping them all afloat. Probably can't afford to pay good reporters to dig out the "facts" unless the facts fall in a reporters lap. Or maybe they won't print or show the facts because they would irritate certain advertisers or "favorites", some who come to mind quickly are Caterpillar, the Peoria Park District, and Lakeview Museum and the PRM Group plus the CEO Roundtable, the folks who were to close the $10+ million funding gap with private dollars. Sure, the gap is being filled with public dollars costing more than the taxpayer will ever be aware.

More on what is happening in the financial field in my next blog.