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Pain in the pocketbook
U.S. lawmakers are insisting that Wall Street chiefs feel the pain in their own pocketbooks in exchange for a $700 billion bailout, but Washington has a poor record when it comes to trying to rein in executive pay, as my colleague Martha Graybow writes here.
Regardless, the era of lavish Wall Street paychecks looks to be over. “The higher risk, higher reward strategies the investment banks used are going to be tamed,” said John Challenger, who runs outplacement firm Challenger Gray & Christmas and tracks pay trends. “The same de-leveraging seen at the banks will go on in compensation,” he says in this analysis by Joseph A. Giannone.
Is this really the end of massive bonuses and golden handshakes? Or will the old Wall Street culture return once Wall Street has finished licking its wounds? Share your views below.
Picture: A tourist poses with the Charging Bull sculpture in Bowling Green park, near Wall Street, September 2, 2008. The bronze sculpture of a bull represents prosperous times. REUTERS/Chip East
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Wall Street would do well to spread the idea that it’ll never be the same, but quietly I’m pretty sure the good days will return once the freeze is over and markets pick up.
I remember similar statements being made in London in the early 90s that pay never returned to the crazy late 80s days, but only about a year after that there were stories that bonuses were larger than ever.
The best stategy if you are rich and getting richer is to keep quiet. Gone are the days of the flaming Ferraris and that kind of “we’re so rich” PR stunt.
in some form or shape, it will return. As long as greed exists in the human psyche, wall st will be back.
“Or will the old Wall Street culture return once Wall Street has finished licking its wounds? ”
Wow. Has anyone really witnessed the end of it? Can it ‘return’ if it never ended? Anyone who thinks greed will magically go away because if this is a complete moron.
The pain Wall Street chiefs might be feeling is nowhere close to the pain ordinary Americans are experiencing.
I have been a life long republican and voted in every primary and general election since 1964, not always for republican candidates.
If the bailout is passed I will contribute money and time to the oponent of every member of the house and senate that voted for the bill here in South Carolina.
I am not a conservative but a libertarian and this bailout stinks. If anyone thinks the government can buy assets at a price they can make a profit on they must be on Mars. The taxpayer will loose and the wealthy will buy these assets from the government cheaply and make huge profits. I just wish we could have a constitutional convention and change the ways things work but that is a lost cause.
Those quanting thieves with their ever more complex schemes have dug their own graves and shall sleep in them. Why Main Street should bail out Wall Street is beyond belief, those scam artists should be forced to disgorge their ill-gotten gains over the last five years and locked up for life. Same goes for commission-based mortgage brokers, bankers, credit rating agencies and other assorted scum.
It is beyond time for a third party! 10 trillion and growing is attributable to the excesses of the two prevailing political partys. We need change, but not the kind that Obama proposses. We need to through out every existing politician and replace them with new blood. Lets call it the peoples revolution.
I am sick to death of incompetent, greedy, lawmakers. How is it that these bastards go to Washington broke and come back rich? How in the hell did Obama get a million dollar home on his senate salary. The whole system stinks.
Ditto to Tom Dendler
& I’m a lifelong Dem. Give the money to people to keep their homes, to cities to save their infrastructure & to pension plans to save their retirees.
& let’s do some nice clawbacks starting w/ Paulson.
Otherwise if you’re an incumbent I don’t care whether you’re Rep., Dem or Green. You vote for this. You’re out.
Rep.Barney Frank said “No solution to a problem can be more elegant than the problem itself.” Senator Shelby knows better, the elegant solution is “NO”. Which part of NO is Frank having a problem understanding, the “N” or the “O” ? Anyone who votes for this abortion has just touched the third rail, and will be ejected from the game.
ahah he is touching his balls. Does no one see this
The Wall Street Bailout Bill:
Bush McCain Obama et al.
The Realignment Of American Politics:
Anderson Baldwin Carter Choate Clemente Gonzalez Gravel Kaptur Kucinich McKinney Nader Paul Perot Sheehan Ventura