Or something like that. We don't live in a moral universe (as we learned once again on Tuesday and the day before and the day after...) Just look at Wall Street.
Some firms have been handing out pink slips. Morgan Stanley even posted a loss in its last quarter.
Yet Wall Street pay seems to defy gravity: Bonuses will be up this year, according to a study to be released on Thursday by a Wall Street compensation expert, Alan Johnson. The survey shows that overall compensation in financial services will rise 5 percent this year, with employees in some businesses like asset management getting increases of 15 percent.
“I did not expect compensation would come back the way it has,” Mr. Johnson said. “I underestimated the industry’s resiliency.”
One does not have to look far to see that Wall Street has found its stride again. Hot new restaurants are opening, and they are packed with traders and investment bankers. John DeLucie, the chef and one of the owners of The Lion restaurant, one of Greenwich Village’s newest hot spots, said business had been surprisingly strong since it opened in May.
Customers are buying vintage bottles of wine; the restaurant recently sold a 1982 Château Mouton Rothschild for $3,950. “We are seeing a lot of luxury purchases, like vintage Bordeaux, things that we haven’t seen sell well in a few years,” Mr. DeLucie said.
Rich year-end bonuses are expected this year even though the total amount of money set aside for compensation in sales and trading and investment banking for the five big Wall Street banks has shrunk.
Over all, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase have set aside $89.54 billion this year to pay employees, 2.8 percent less than a year ago, according to data from the Japanese bank Nomura.
See what I mean? And you have to admit that the following makes the news all the more painful.
Total revenue for the five firms has fallen about 4 percent this year.
If we were to add together 1) the money paid out this year to make sure Republicans got elected, 2) the money paid out this year to make sure Democrats got elected, and 3) the money paid out this year in bonuses to investment bankers who lost money for their investors -- we could do one helluva lot for this country. Sigh.
