Wall Street bonuses and us

Posted by Marc Hodak on November 4, 2010 under Reporting on pay | Be the First to Comment

The magic words “rising Wall Street bonuses” still can command a headline.  The WSJ used that headline to report a whopping 5% rise in bonuses at “Wall Street” firms.  (Whatever that means.  I mean, is Bank of America, in Charlotte NC, a Wall Street firm?  What about the hedge funds strewn across the land, but not generally in Manhattan, which many have fled?  All of these firms were included in the survey report.)  The bulk of jobs most people most closely associate with Wall Street, i.e., stock and bond traders, apparently dragged down that average:

According to the survey, bond traders will see bonuses for 2010 decline 25% to 30% from last year, while bonuses for stock traders are expected to shrink 20% to 25%.

Not reported is the fact that most of these Wall Streeters have had substantial salary increases precisely so that their bonuses won’t be so visible.  It worked.

The most annoying point of this story is the obligatory quote from the fussbody public official who purports to speak for me:

Michel Barnier, the European Union’s financial-services commissioner, recently said that “more could be done” in the U.S. on “reforming compensation.” “If we do nothing, it means that we have not drawn the right lessons from the crisis,” he said.

“We” Mr. EU regulator?  If you are going to use that bureaucratic, aggressive, passive voice to urge government officials to grab more money and power attacking–of all things–the greed of others, hey, I’m used to that.  But kindly leave “we” out of it.