Hundred of thousands of finance jobs have been lost in the US this year, you're kidding if these guys have as many options. The base pay shouldn't go up. Maybe the top 10% performers should get a bigger bonus, but the base pay shouldn't go up. The bottom 50% should be happy they're even employed.
<I>âThe concepts we are considering would not increase total compensation,â Brian Moynihan, Bank of Americaâs president of investment banking and wealth management, wrote in a memo to employees today, obtained by Bloomberg News. âRather, we believe it is responsible, and consistent with the emerging public consensus, that a greater percentage of overall compensation come from fixed base salary.â</I> The fact that they even came up with an idiotic idea like this is a proof that they haven't learned anything at all from the current crisis that they have caused. These companies should have been closed down in some orderly fashion to make space for their competitors to take over. Their stupidity will cost everyone much more than $45 billion down the road.
I'm interested to hear who do you think is going to pay for the bank bailout, which is by far the biggest item on the spending bill? If you take a loan you will eventually have to pay it back. The money that was paid to the banks was not intended to go into salaries and that's the reason why the government stopped the bonuses.
Taxpayer dollars? -don't pay to keep employees? You will get your wish and they will leave, I know many of them. Don't ask 'where will they work?', believe me these guys will NOT be working at McDonalds. BAC has indeed taken $45billion in government bribes. That's right; $20billion bribe in a government MANDATED takeover of Countrywide Financial; and a $25billion government bribe in a MANDATED takeover of Merrill Lynch (who posted a $22billion loss in Q4 alone). Some of you guys sound like the toothless, uninformed vagabonds screaming for socialist distribution of others wealth. BAC will give the money back after getting screwed over by the government in being forced into these acquisitions it DID NOT WANT and move forward as a private/shareholder institution, not having to have their employees compensation voted on by clamers and truck drivers.
People have a right to be pissed! This is not about socialism or redistribution of wealth. You must be listening too much to the conservative brainwash. If BAC and other banks were forced into these takeovers then it needs to be somehow explained to the tax payer, because he/she is the last resort investor at this point. You are talking about giving out billions of public money and it needs to be sold to people in such a way that they understand the plan and stand behind it. If they have feeling that they are getting ripped off then you will have a lot dissent and anger.
It seems to me that because they are "taking taxpayer money" everyone thinks all of the sudden they should all become government workers. Ok fine..but we must then ask ourselves..would we like to at least have a CHANCE of breaking even on this stupid ass investment we have made? (and I dont think anyone could argue that it should have been made in the first place..but now that it has been we are stuck with it, you cant undo the fuck ups of the past)If we do, we should probably like to have some decent people working for us..people of the quality you may find at for example Goldman Sachs and not at Amtrack or the DOT. This is only a thought and I reserve the right to be wrong..but it seems to me that this class warfare shit is going to bite us in the ass and cause us to lose even more.
Actually a very good post. I've said the same thing. The Fed and Treasury BEGGED Ken Lewis to make those acquisitions and now BAC management gets shit on. I'm not going to act like some heavy hitter but I've paid a fair amount of federal taxes the past two years-unlike MANY who I'm sure are bitching on these threads-and no this isn't the worst 45b I've seen the G waste money on. Once my dad gave me the ultimate shut-up line. I was bitching about the government debt and taxes and he said, "everything you've made in life was from scalping futures on Treasury debt and you have the nerve to complain about deficits?"
I am not listening to any brainwash. I am listening to the bankers at BAC in question who have been paid PRIMARILY in stock in years past at $40-$50 and have watched it go as low as $3 because of these acquisitions. BAC was one of our strongest banks. Thats why the Fed turned to them TWICE to avert disaster. Maybe you're right. BAC should do a better job in pleading with the public. If the Yankees don't pay Jeter and Arod $25million apiece, then the Yankees will suck. If we have no quality employees, then we will suck. I can tell you from the frontlines. My friends at BAC and JPM are thinking they have two options; go to a foreign bank and take all their customers there, or start up an operation stealing all key employees from the bank with a promise to let them have equity participation in the new entity. BAC and JPM are desperate at this point. The exodus will start immediately, if you are not getting bonus for '09, leave NOW before you waste any more time towards getting paid somewhere else.
You're only kidding yourself if you don't think an MD from B of A couldn't get a job at another top bank or shop. There have actually already been guys leaving TARP banks and going to other banks. As far as the lower guys go, they are working 90 hours a week and making 65k total. That's close minimum wage. Some TARP banks are also still hiring (barely) but nobody wants to work for them. They're going into consulting, accounting, and similar fields. Banking is just plain unattractive right now because of the pay. I've got a few buddies in this situation and they want out (some already are).
I agree. The persons who are saying the government should not prop up the markets and let the market do its work and go into depression don't realize this will hurt traders more than propping up the markets. They are not speaking as a trader. Bubbles are GOOD for traders, because bubbles implode. Then you can make lots of money on the long side AND on the short side. What happens in depression is alot of chop in the markets which is only good for the buy and hold people.