Sunday, October 24, 2010

Happy Days Are Here Again...

...at least for those working on Wall Street. In 2006, compensation at Wall Street firms according to the Wall Street Journal was $117.2 billion and profits were $82 billion. In 2010 it looks as though compensation will be $144.5 (up 23%) even though profits will have declined to $61.3 billion (down 25%). How can that be? Some of these companies would not be here (or not in the shape they're in) unless we had bailed them out.

It appears as though The Street considers everyone a salesperson, as they compare compensation to revenues, not profits. Does this emphasis make them stronger companies? Isn't this what they were doing before the Great Recession - focusing only on revenue, no matter how shaky or phantasmagorical it was.

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