No Bonuses for Wall Street in 1973!

Kind of strange how, back in 1973 when the US was in an economical recession, that bonuses weren't given out that year on Wall Street.

Greed Is Good

1973 was a terrible year on Wall Street. An unexpected crisis in the Middle East led to a quadrupling of oil prices and a serious global economic recession. The president was in serious trouble with Watergate. The S&P 500 index dropped 50% (after 23 years of rising markets), and much of Wall Street fell deeply into the red. There were no profits, and therefore no bonuses.

I was a 35-year-old, nonpartner investment banker then and was horrified to learn that my annual take-home pay would be limited to my small salary, which accounted for about a quarter of my previous year's income. Fortunately the partners decided to pay a small bonus out of their capital that year to help employees like me get by.

This article goes on to speculate on how "Greed is Good", and the bonuses are what keeps the competition high and helps companies keep good producing workers.

But it was the quote above that really caught my attention.

Funny how 35 years ago when their profits went down the tubes that bonuses were one of the first things that these companies cut.

BUT, fast forward 35 years, and now we have these companies begging for money from the taxpayers and then just turning around and giving it to their employees as bonuses!

Managerial practices, and morals, sure have changed in 35 years!

That's a really interesting point. Clearly things were more logical and faire in '73. And clearly the people who are messing up are extremely greedy and do not care about the consequences of their actions.

But on the other hand, that isn't really anything new. It's just manifesting differently.

I say the government should tax these bonuses that these companies are just "handing out" to their employees, in the millions of dollars, at a rate of 90%!

Just a little slap on the nose of the companies, and their employees, that just take this bailout so lightly that they just want to spread OUR wealth among themselves while a lot of small businesses, like mine, are at the verge of going out of business!

These small businesses aren't at the verge of going out of business because of something THEY'VE done, but due to what these companies (and their employees) did, and now these bailouts and are going to have to come out of the pockets of small business owners who are barely keeping their heads above water and their employees.

Well, you know what, your BIG company that you worked for DIDN"T MAKE ANY MONEY!!!

And you know what happens then????

NO BONUSES!!!!!

WHY should the rest of the US pat you on the back and give YOU a bonus!

I say tax the bonuses that were given out from bailout money at 90%!!

In 1973 theses same companies didn't give out bonuses (because they didn't make a profit), why do they think that taxpayers money should pay for bonuses NOW!!!!!

[edit on 2/10/2009 by Keyhole]