Wall Street faces new frontier on bonuses, perks

[tosh]

Wall Street faces new frontier on bonuses, perks

http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE5136LA20090204?rpc=77

By Jonathan Spicer and Jonathan Stempel - Analysis

NEW YORK (Reuters) - During the years of fat if illusory profits, Wall Street and the rest of the U.S. banking industry justified doling out lavish bonuses to top employees by arguing that if they did not, someone else would.

Times change.

President Barack Obama's call to cap executive pay at $500,000 for financial companies getting taxpayer aid comes as lenders try to cut costs and risk, and as Washington politicians and other critics demand a new austerity.

"Low compensation is something that CEOs of large banks have not seen before," said Yaniv Grinstein, a professor at Cornell University's business school and an executive pay specialist. "At the same time, market conditions today are probably such that opportunities elsewhere are not as they used to be, so (caps) might not be as detrimental."

Executives and other top performers may once have been more of a flight risk had they not received that seven-figure bonus or that extra bottle of Sassicaia after closing a big deal.

But tens of thousands of jobs have been lost in the banking industry, and those who still have jobs might feel fortunate to be employed at all.


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[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. I would really like to introduce them to new frontiers...

In highly traumatic and humiliating proctology techniques. On a pay-per-view special.

[Common Sense Party]

2. Live from Abu Ghraib prison?

Torture is torture.

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. What great genius do those guys possess that makes them so highly valued?

It's pretty obvious that their only talent was to lie, cheat & steal.