It's bonus time, or rather, past bonus time, and so what does one of the king jerkoffs of the world do? Why, he announces what his bonus is, as if saying "I'm not hiding anything, so see what a good person I am?"Nah.
The element of this kind of pr that really chaps my ass is how insulting it is, obviously in blind hubris, but for the very fact that he puts it out at all. Because the assumption is that you'll buy it and go, "ok." And even if you don't buy it, wtf are you going to do? You're powerless; you aren't on tap at CNBC or Charlie Rose to give your 2 cents, much less write a NYT column. What are you going to do, blog about it fer gawd's sakes?
HO hum; Lotta good that'll do.
There's also a stupid side bar video; "FDIC: Bonus Culture Needs to Change." This is how stupid our Bizarro World is, what we've been reduced to.
Last, there's a link to this story:
BofA spends $4.4B on its Wall Street bankers
In it, the average comes out to $440k for 10,000 employees.
And at the end of that story is this gem:
AIG doling out $100 million more in bonuses
And yet, I really can't blame them. What they're doing is morally reprehensible, but illegal? Not the way Uncle Scam and they composed it. In fact, it's very logical that these shitheads are doing what they are; it's their economic imperative.
Who we absolutely can and should blame are:
1. Ben Bernanke
2. Hank Paulson
3. Tim Geithner
4. Chris Dodd
5. Barney Frank
6. Larry Summers
And then there're juniors, like Neel Kashkari, a former Goldmanite, instrumental in TARP under Paulson, and now landed in a plumb job with bond house PIMCO.
These are the men who acted on behalf of you and I... and sold us and future generations down the river.
Truth is the CRAs and their corrupt, conflict of interest relationship with the banks are a prime reason any of this crap got started. It smacks of fraud; basically, lying about the financial products the banks were flooding the market with as being investment grade AAA rated.
But it doesn't end there - the rest of the "refs" also bear responsibility, in this case the regulating bodies such as the SEC and the CFTC - the CFTC's Brooksley Born being an exception, and the industry analysts with the notable exception of those who I've mentioned who have had the courage to tell it like it is, among others; Nomi Prins, Gretchen Morgenson, Meredith Whitney, Catherine Austin Fitts (who I haven't written on yet, but plan on), Peter Schiff, William Black, Matt Taibbi, Michael Lewis, and David Cay Johnston. (see sidebar "EM08 Analysts to Trust")
It's also a perfect example of how this incarnation of a republic can catastrophically fail, because as you recall, the initial TARP vote failed due to immense public outcry.
Then in just a matter of a week or so, it "somehow" "miraculously" passed.
Who flipped and why? Don't you want to know?
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JPMorgan's Dimon scores $16M bonus
By David Ellis, staff writer
February 5, 2010: 11:22 AM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon will take home a nearly $16 million bonus in restricted stock and options for leading the bank to a big profit last year.
In a company filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Friday, the New York City-based bank said Dimon would collect nearly 200,000 shares of restricted stock and more than a half million in options.
According to a source familiar with the matter, Dimon did not receive a cash bonus. Wall Street firms in general have migrated from paying their employees large cash bonuses to stock and options in response to public outcry over bonuses and in an effort to tie employee compensation to company performance.
Based on Thursday's closing price of $38.35 per share, Dimon's restricted stock payment would be worth about $7.5 million.
His significantly larger options payment however, would only translate into profits if JPMorgan Chase's (JPM, Fortune 500) stock price climbs above $43.20 per share.
Both payments are to be deferred over several years and are subject to so-called "clawback" provisions, which can reclaim pay from workers whose actions may damage the firm's long-term financial health.
Including the $1 million base salary Dimon received for the year, his total pay package for 2009 is nearly $17 million.
Dimon received no bonus in 2008 and a $28 million bonus in 2007.
In a year when the banking industry struggled due to massive mortgage and consumer loan losses, JPMorgan Chase fared relatively well compared to many of its peers.
Last month, the bank revealed it earned $11.73 billion in 2009, more than twice what it earned just a year earlier. That translated into a better year for JPMorgan workers, including the 25,000 employees working on Wall Street.
The company said it spent $9.33 billion to pay workers in its investment banking division, an increase of $1.6 billion from a year ago. That figure includes salaries as well as money set aside for bonuses and works out to an average annual compensation per employee of nearly $380,000.
All eyes are now focused on Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500), which has yet to disclose its year-end bonuses for its top executives.
While members of Goldman's management committee declined to take cash bonuses for 2009, there is still speculation that its executives could collect a windfall in stock and options. The Times of London reported earlier this month that company CEO Lloyd Blankfein could receive a bonus payment of close to $100 million.
