An article today in the WSJ says Wall Street investment banks are on track to give out record bonuses this year...

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.

    ....Total compensation and benefits at the publicly traded firms analyzed by the Journal are on track to increase 20% from last year's $117 billion — and to top 2007's $130 billion payout. This year, employees at the companies will earn an estimated $143,400 on average, up almost $2,000 from 2007 levels...

...Goldman also says employees have long had a stake in its long-term results because many are compensated in part with shares they can't touch for several years. Average compensation per employee is on pace to reach about $743,000 this year, double last year's $364,000 and up 12% from about $622,000 in 2007, according to the Journal analysis.

This is just head scratching stuff to me. Are we not less than one year out from barely plunging into the worst economic crisis the world has seen, primarily because of the malfeasance of most of these corporations, an economic meltdown that was only avoided through bailing them out with a trillions of dollars of our tax money?  And so they use that money to reestablish themselves in less than 12 months and can now give out record compensation to their employees? Look, I've got no problem with excessive bonuses by corporate America, top athletes make ridiculous amounts of money but only because they bring in much more for their franchises, the cast of Seinfeld made what, $1M an episode at their peak but hey, they were bringing in 10-20-30 times that amount in ad revenue, same with some investment guru who brings in beaucoup bucks for his bank.

What irks me here is that we were told that AIG, Goldman, BoA etc. etc. were too big to fail, that as distasteful as it was the government needed to prop them up with trillions of dollars to save not just the nation but the world, which means through proxy we propped them up with trillions of dollars.  And that lending wasn't even at a penalty rate or anything, give me a trillion bucks at 0% interest and even I, idiot that I am, could do something that would warrant a $23B bonus. As someone pointed out on a blog in the comments:

This is the question: Would theses $23B in GS bonuses exist to be paid if:

    1) No TARP;
    2) No bailout of AIG counterparties;
    3) No influential GS lobby in Congress;
    4) No gifting of hundreds of billions by governments to TBTF’s;
    5) No obscene influence and conflict ridden relationships b/w GS and the Executive branch (Treasury);
    6) Future risks of the bonus worthy performance had to be taken into account????

If the answer is that these $23 B in GS bonuses would exist even without the above, then I agree we shouldn’t be mad at the bonuses. But I doubt it.

All this while the rest of us are being shackled with the worst recession since World War II? Wall Street is zooming but on what? Housings still is in the shitter, unemployment is going to pass 10%, retail will announce or just announced another dismal quarter and predictions are for a bad Christmas buying season, the auto industry went back in the toilet after the Cash for Clunkers money ran out, what is WS seeing that's a silver lining here? [Aside: I did have a great quarter on my 401k...I actually am back to the level I was at this time last year, which shocked me. Of course I invested over that year so I basically threaded water but I'll take that over drowning...anyway]

My take is that either the crisis was not as bad as we were spoon fed, that some of these banks could have toppled and we would have been ok (and some might still - how's it feel to be a Bank of America share holder right now) or Wall Street, with its gambling addiction, is already mouth to teat on the next bubble scam. Blech, this actually gives me less of a secure feeling than when everything fell off the cliff last October. Either we just got used in the biggest Ponzi scam ever or the same idiots on Wall Street and in Congress are driving us back over the same cliff. I'm thinking I should pull all my money out and stick it in muni bonds and be happy with  1/2-1% over inflation.

Anyone have an explanation for this?