Wall Street Bonuses Sixth Largest on Record

Where most Americans work, bonuses are paid to employees who perform exceptionally well and the employer has had a profitable year. Not on Wall Street:

Despite crippling losses, multibillion-dollar bailouts and the passing of some of the most prominent names in the business, employees at financial companies in New York, the now-diminished world capital of capital, collected an estimated $18.4 billion in bonuses for the year. That was the sixth-largest haul on record, according to a report released Wednesday by the New York State comptroller.

In fact, the total bonuses paid on Wall Street for the worst year since brokers began hurling themselves out the window in 1929 totaled "about... as much as they did in 2004, when the Dow Jones industrial average was flying above 10,000, on its way to a record high."

Don't think for a moment the financial wizards who brought us to the brink of economic ruin are grateful. "A poll of 900 financial industry employees released on Wednesday by eFinancialCareers.com, a job search Web site, found that while nearly eight out of 10 got bonuses, 46 percent thought they deserved more."