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boutons_
10-18-2008, 10:03 PM
http://hits.gureport.co.uk/HG?hc=we89&cd=1&hv=6&ce=u&hb=DM550607F7NE;DM54102495BW&n=%7Barticle%7D%7BWall+Street+banks+in+$70bn+staff +payout%7D%7Bp1103172%7D&vcon=/GU/Business/Executive+salaries&seg=&cmp=&gp=&fnl=&pec=&dcmp=&ra=&gn=&cv=&ld=&la=&customerid=%28none%29&c1=usa&c2=%28none%29&c3=The+Guardian&c4=Executive+salaries+%28Business%29,Banking+secto r+%28Business%29,US+economy+%28Business%29,Credit+ crunch+%28Business%29,Market+turmoil,Business,Gold man+Sachs,Citigroup,Morgan+Stanley,JP+Morgan,Merri ll+Lynch,Lehman+Brothers,World+news&c5=&c6=Simon+Bowers&c7=2008_10_18
http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-business,guardiangu-network/1/H.15.1/3412?ns=guardian&pageName=Business%3A+Wall+Street+banks+in+%2470bn+ staff+payout&ch=Business&c3=The+Guardian&c4=Executive+salaries+%28Business%29%2CBanking+sec tor+%28Business%29%2CUS+economy+%28Business%29%2CC redit+crunch+%28Business%29%2CMarket+turmoil%2CBus iness%2CGoldman+Sachs%2CCitigroup%2CMorgan+Stanley %2CJP+Morgan%2CMerrill+Lynch%2CLehman+Brothers%2CW orld+news&c5=Investments%2CCredit+Crunch%2CNot+commercially+ useful%2CBusiness+Markets%2CUS+Economy&c6=Simon+Bowers&c7=2008_10_18&c8=1103172&c9=article&c10=GU&c11=Business&c12=Executive+salaries&c13=&c14=&h2=GU%2FBusiness%2FExecutive+salaries&c1=usa&c2=%28none%29
Wall Street banks in $70bn staff payout

Pay and bonus deals equivalent to 10% of US government bail-out package
Simon Bowers (http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/simonbowers)
The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian),
Saturday October 18 2008http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2008/09/26/bullshit-460x276.jpg Demonstrators protesting in New York before the $700bn Wall Street bail-out earlier this month. Photograph: Nicholas Roberts/AFP/Getty images

Financial workers at Wall Street's top banks (http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/banking) are to receive pay deals worth more than $70bn (£40bn), a substantial proportion of which is expected to be paid in discretionary bonuses, for their work so far this year - despite plunging the global financial system into its worst crisis (http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/useconomy) since the 1929 stock market crash, the Guardian has learned.

Staff at six banks including Goldman Sachs (http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/goldmansachs) and Citigroup are in line to pick up the payouts despite being the beneficiaries of a $700bn bail-out from the US government that has already prompted criticism. The government's cash has been poured in on the condition that excessive executive pay would be curbed.

Pay plans for bankers have been disclosed in recent corporate statements. Pressure on the US firms to review preparations for annual bonuses increased yesterday when Germany's Deutsche Bank said many of its leading traders would join Josef Ackermann, its chief executive, in waiving millions of euros in annual payouts.

The sums that continue to be spent by Wall Street firms on payroll, payoffs and, most controversially, bonuses appear to bear no relation to the losses incurred by investors in the banks. Shares in Citigroup and Goldman Sachs have declined by more than 45% since the start of the year. Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley (http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/morganstanley) have fallen by more than 60%. JP MorganChase fell 6.4% and Lehman Brothers has collapsed.

At one point last week the Morgan Stanley $10.7bn pay pot for the year to date was greater than the entire stock market value of the business. In effect, staff, on receiving their remuneration, could club together and buy the bank.

In the first nine months of the year Citigroup, which employs thousands of staff in the UK, accrued $25.9bn for salaries and bonuses, an increase on the previous year of 4%. Earlier this week the bank accepted a $25bn investment by the US government as part of its bail-out plan.

At Goldman Sachs the figure was $11.4bn, Morgan Stanley $10.73bn, JP Morgan $6.53bn and Merrill Lynch $11.7bn. At Merrill, which was on the point of going bust last month before being taken over by Bank of America, the total accrued in the last quarter grew 76% to $3.49bn. At Morgan Stanley, the amount put aside for staff compensation also grew in the last quarter to the end of August by 3% to $3.7bn.

Days before it collapsed into bankruptcy protection a month ago Lehman Brothers revealed $6.12bn of staff pay plans in its corporate filings. These payouts, the bank insisted, were justified despite net revenue collapsing from $14.9bn to a net outgoing of $64m.

None of the banks the Guardian contacted wished to comment on the record about their pay plans. But behind the scenes, one source said: "For a normal person the salaries are very high and the bonuses seem even higher. But in this world you get a top bonus for top performance, a medium bonus for mediocre performance and a much smaller bonus if you don't do so well."

Many critics of investment banks have questioned why firms continue to siphon off billions of dollars of bank earnings into bonus pools rather

than using the funds to shore up the capital position of the crisis-stricken institutions. One source said: "That's a fair question - and it may well be that by the end of the year the banks start review the situation."

Much of the anger about investment banking bonuses has focused on boardroom executives such as former Lehman boss Dick Fuld, who was paid $485m in salary, bonuses and options between 2000 and 2007.

Last year Merrill Lynch's chairman Stan O'Neal retired after announcing losses of $8bn, taking a final pay deal worth $161m. Citigroup boss Chuck Prince left last year with a $38m in bonuses, shares and options after multibillion-dollar write-downs. In Britain, Bob Diamond, Barclays president, is one of the few investment bankers whose pay is public. Last year he received a salary of £250,000, but his total pay, including bonuses, reached £36m.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/17/executivesalaries-banking

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Let's hear again how the financial crisis was caused by poor people and Fannie Mae! :lol

Anti.Hero
10-18-2008, 10:56 PM
:rollin:rollin

boutons_
10-20-2008, 06:44 AM
Treasury Blacks Out Key Parts of Private Bailout Contracts

Remember how Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson promised full transparency in spending the $700 billion bailout money? And remember how bailout opponents predicted that the failure to mandate such transparency would allow all sorts of Halliburton-style shenanigans? From the looks of the first private contracts issued by the Treasury Department, it looks like the bailout opponents were correct.


As flagged by BailoutSleuth.com (http://bailoutsleuth.com/2008/10/the-end-of-bailout-transparency-already/), Paulson is blacking out the sections of government contracts that spell out how much private firms will be paid for their services in administering taxpayer money. Here's a page from the compensation part of a contract with Bank of New York, which has been hired (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aAmKpfFmUVwk&refer=home) to do some of the bookkeeping (because, of course, the Bush administration is happy to privatize that function):





http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3184/2957172036_e22d895722.jpg?v=0

And here's a page from the compensation part of a Treasury contract with law firm Simpson Thatcher Bartlett - a firm being hired (http://www.financialweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081017/REG/810179978/1036) to provide "legal advice" to the government:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3252/2957172076_a95b3468d4.jpg?v=0

Think these are doctored images? Check them out yourself on Treasury's website - the first contract is here (http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/reports/custodiancontract.pdf) (blacked out section on page 25 of the PDF) and the second contract is here (http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/reports/lawfirmcontract.pdf) (blacked out section on page 5 of the PDF).


So, just to review - within just a few weeks of the bailout passing, our government is blacking out the parts of public contracts that explain how much taxpayer cash private contractors are going to be paid. Perhaps this is what Paulson meant when he promised transparency - by posting these blacked out contracts on the Treasury website, the government is being transparent about exactly where it is being secretive. But I don't think that definition of transparency really flies, do you?


Of course, I wish I was surprised about this - but one of the major reasons I was opposed to this bailout from the beginning was because (as I and others repeatedly wrote) there is no real transparency at all. Now we know what "no transparency at all" really means.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-sirota/treasury-blacks-out-key-p_b_136030.html?view=print

boutons_
10-20-2008, 06:47 AM
SOCIALIST Germany, otoh:

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/img/printer_friendly/news_logo.gif

Germany sets bank bail-out rules


The German government has set out the conditions that banks must accept if they want to take part in its 480bn-euro (£370.4bn; $645bn) bail-out plan.

Under the conditions, top staff at banks that accept direct injections of capital from the government will see their salaries capped at 500,000 euros.

They will also miss out on bonuses and dividend payments while their banks are receiving government help.

The rescue plan was approved on Friday and includes funds to buy risky assets.

The bail-out includes 400bn euros in lending guarantees, while a further 80bn euros will be provided for recapitalisation and to buy-up risky assets.

Reaction to the plan among the heads of the country's leading banks has been mixed.

Deutsche Bank chief executive Josef Ackermann said that his bank would not be participating in the bail-out.

Commerzbank chief executive Martin Blessing said he would consider whether the package was right for his business, according to German newspaper Bild on Sunday.

But other banks have jumped at the chance, with state bank BayernLB saying it wanted the money as soon as possible.

"It's about achieving a fast stabilisation," said BayernLB's administrative board boss Erwin Huber.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/business/7679454.stm

Published: 2008/10/20 09:12:38 GMT

© BBC MMVIII