Category Archives: News and Newspapers

(Sometimes I wonder why we bothered at all to bail out banks and bankers. Was it so they could pay higher employee compensation packages? Or to print up forms telling us to expect more charges on our bank and credit card accounts? How is it that an average bank employee is worth $400,000 when teachers, nurses, social workers, etc., make a fraction of that and can barely make ends meet? How, how, how is this right?! – KM)

Headline: JPMorgan investment bankers to see record payday

NEW YORK (Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) on Friday announced a record $9.3 billion payday for its investment-banking employees, setting the stage for competitors like Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) to also make eye-popping payouts.

On a per employee basis, JPMorgan investment bankers, sales staff and traders, on average, are set to make about $379,000 for 2009, up more than $100,000 from 2008, when the broader financial sector was mired in crisis.

“People looking at it from the outside look at the dollars and say they are high,” said Kenneth Raskin, the head of law firm White & Case’s executive compensation practice. “There is no question the dollars are high. The question is whether they were deserving.”

Median U.S. household income in 2008 was $50,303.

Here’s a link to the rest of the story.