The New York financial industry's $27 billion haul for 2013
is ridiculous.
Not too many years
ago, any news story about bonus money would’ve been about some 20-year-old
baseball player — an up-and-coming superstar getting $100,000 or so on top of
his salary as an extra incentive to join the Yankees, Giants, or whatever team.
Sportswriters dubbed
them “Bonus Babies.” How quaint.
These days, stories
about bonus money don’t elicit cheers, for they feature some of society’s least
admirable people: Wall Street bankers.
Far from superstars, they can be
super-failures. Yet, as every year gets underway, we witness this
cluster of greedmeisters quaffing champagne, laughing uproariously, and
shouting, “It’s bonus time, baby!”
That averages out to
$165,000 in extra pay to each Wall Street banker. But averages deceive, for
thousands of lower-level bankers are given a pittance, while those up in the
executive suites make off with the bulk of the heist.
Consider the
compensation of Jamie Dimon. The boss of JPMorgan Chase had a really terrible
year in 2013, with his shareholders forced to shell out some $22 billion in
penalties for a long rap sheet of illegalities. Still, Dimon took a 74
percent hike in bonus money — a cool $18.5 million.
In a time when 90
percent of Americans are
experiencing a slow and protracted decline in their income,
you’d think Wall Street might show a bit of modesty.
OtherWords columnist Jim Hightower is
a radio commentator, writer, and public speaker. He’s also editor of the
populist newsletter, The Hightower
Lowdown. OtherWords.org