Published in Bloomberg October 22, 2009 by Julianna Goldman, Ian Katz and Robert Schmidt
The Obama administration slammed Wall Street by ordering pay cuts by an average of 50 percent and caps on benefits for top executives at companies owing the government billions of dollars from taxpayer-funded bailouts.
The news triggered debate about the government’s reach into private industry, whether pay reductions would spread to other companies and if a talent drain from U.S. firms would ensue. Others cheered the move.
Posts Tagged ‘Wall Street’
Newsfeeds
Wall Street Pay Cuts Stoke Debate About Washington’s Reach
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Wall Street fat cats fear the pay czar
Published in CNN Money October 20, 2009 by David Ellis
President Obama’s “pay czar” will soon decide whether top executives at firms that received the most assistance from the government during last year’s financial crisis are making too much money.
By month’s end, Kenneth Feinberg, a Washington attorney who up until six months ago was known by few on Wall Street, is expected to rule on pay packages for the 5 most senior executives at Citigroup (C, Fortune 500), Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) and AIG (AIG, Fortune 500) as well as 20 other highly compensated executives at those firms.
Newsfeeds
Goldman Sachs exec defends bonuses at ethics debate
Published in Reuters October 20, 2009 by Georgina Cooper
Bumper payouts to bankers should be seen as part of a longer term investment in London’s economy, the vice chairman of Goldman Sachs International told a debate on ethics at St Paul’s Cathedral on Tuesday.
Defending lavish bonuses expected at the U.S. investment bank, Brian Griffiths said he was not “ashamed” of his bank’s compensation package, which has inflamed the bonuses debate.
The British public should “tolerate the inequality as a way to achieve greater prosperity for all” Griffiths said at the public meeting examining what role morality should play in the marketplace.
Newsfeeds
Wall Street 40% Bonus Rise Feeds Spending on $43 Steak, Co-ops
Published in Bloomberg October 20, 2009 by Martin Z. Braun
40 percent jump in Wall Street bonuses this year may bring relief to New York City and Albany as the state and its biggest metropolis struggle with a combined $14 billion in budget deficits this fiscal year and next.
New York investment houses will dole out $26 billion in bonus checks by the end of March, said Alan Johnson, president of compensation consultant Johnson Associates Inc. The money will probably boost sales of multimillion-dollar co-op apartments and generate extra income-tax revenue for state and city governments.
Newsfeeds
Wall Street On Track To Award Record Pay
Published in The Wall Street Journal October 14, 2009 by Aaron Lucchetti and Stephen Grocer
Major U.S. banks and securities firms are on pace to pay their employees about $140 billion this year — a record high that shows compensation is rebounding despite regulatory scrutiny of Wall Street’s pay culture.
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Don’t Fail, or Reward Success
Published in The New York Times October 13, 2009by Andrew Ross Sorkin
“Compensation continues to generate controversy and anger,” Lloyd Blankfein, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, said last month. “And, in many respects, much of it is understandable and appropriate.”
Newsfeeds
In Merrill’s Failed Plan, Lessons for Pay Czar
Published in The New York Times October 8, 2009 by Louise Story
It sounds like something Washington’s pay czar might propose to rein in runaway bonuses on Wall Street.
Tie executives’ compensation to their company’s stock price. Withhold big paydays for years. Claw back bonuses if things go wrong. And force risk-loving traders to gamble with their own money, not just their company’s.
Newsfeeds
One Third of Wall Street Expects Bigger Bonus in ‘09
Published in Bloomberg October 6,2009 by Josh Fineman
More than a third of Wall Street finance professionals surveyed expect their bonuses to increase for 2009, a year after the credit-market collapse that some regulators say was fueled by out-sized pay packages, eFinancialCareers.com found.
Newsfeeds
Wall Street Needs More Skin in the Game
Published in The Wall Street Journal September 30, 2009 by Peter Weinberg
The debate about bonuses and Wall Street pay rages on, and for good reason. Compensation is a complex issue that is essential to managing systemic risk. The asymmetrical structure of pay packages—a “heads I win, tails I win less” approach—was wrong. But overly prescriptive government intervention to solve the problem poses its own challenges and might not help us get the incentives right, either. So what can we do?
Newsfeeds
Wall St Bonuses Spark Outrage on Main Street USA
Published by Reuters September 8, 2009
All you have to do to feel the outrage over the continuing flow of bonuses on Wall Street is to take a walk down Main Street.