This is a match we want tickets to. Pitting the Dollar Dominatrix against Obama and the Economic Superfriends promises to be the battle of the decade. In the right corner, “the top talent will drain out like nothing you’ve heard since Perot’s ‘Giant Sucking Sound.’” In the left corner, the $500,000 cap “because taxpayers are not going to fund greed.” Ready? FIGHT!
“No one goes into Wall Street to save the world,” Whitney said today in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “Compensation is the motivating factor.”
Wall Street pay is getting scrutiny after New York banks and securities firm paid $18.4 billion in bonuses for 2008 while the six biggest New York-based financial companies lost a combined $42.4 billion and got $90 billion in government bailout funds. JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said yesterday that “pay got a little exuberant.”
Whitney Calls Pay Wall Street’s ‘Motivating Factor’ [Bloomberg]
“Compensation is the motivating factor”
She also noted that cigarettes cause cancer.
What are these people going to do if they don’t go to Wall Street?
Atlas Shrugged.
This is unrelated entirely to this post, but…
Wayne Brady is going to smack the next bitch who writes “the hoi polloi”
Seriously. how did this become acceptable
Too kingston, didnt trio
thanks for stating the blinding obvious, oh mw the great thinker..
Holy franz,
Meridith Whitney decorated her
apartment like a young Nina brown.
the hoi polloi.
now what?
God I can not wait until this publicity whores 15 minutes are up. She has been the master-of-the-obvious from the beginning.
“She also noted that cigarettes cause cancer.”
Now c’mon. That’s not proven yet!
So, now, bank and financial executives will unionize just like government school teachers. Look at the NYC schools and their hordes of barbaric students for a glimpse of our financial future.
Considering what the “top talent” managed to accomplish over these last few months, who needs them?
@13 – you talking about Dems?
@2
The populists (and idiots) don’t seem to understand the reality they’re incentivising, namely, everyone who knows anything simply walking away from the big banks, leaving them hanging, and starting new banks with capital currently sidelined.
Of course, I fully expect the above to be completely refuted with circumstantial evidence and ALL CAPS gobbligook, but w/e
Thank you captain obvious!!! I always wondered why I choose to show up at a job I can’t stand every day….oh yeah the f—in MONEY!! I really didn’t think it was for the warm fuzzy feeling I get being here or the endless humanitarianism of it all!
The biggest impact this will have is turning NYC back into a city in ill repair – crime will go up — services will be hurt – primarily b.c. tax revenue will plummet – housing prices will plummet and NYC as the center of the finance world will be a memory. Will also hurt the rest of New york state since the city generates 50% of the tax revenue from the state. I don’t blame the administration for doing this – the people running these firms should have seen this coming and cut pay much more drastically this year – they brought this on themselves. But the rest of us that live in and own real estate in new york city will be punished just as much.
All I can say is I didn’t vote for Obama…don’t you wish you could say that too?
Look for her upcoming research report: “Correlations between Cold and Winter – A Bullish Case”
@13
I heard that argument quite a bit and I agree. But I wouldn’t say the last few months, more like the last two decades.
I used to laugh at people for saying this, but I’m really getting hot for Whitney.
I would let her tie me up, whip me, and tell me I’ve been a bad banker.
@18
News flash. Obama is not responsible for the mess you’re in. tool.
Dominatrix versus the Inflation Hawk, good lord.
Someone needs to tell thick ankle Whitney that Andy finished her painting 15 minutes ago and save your idiotic CNBC comments for WrestleMania XXV. And what the fuck is up with that striped thing on the wall? Does she live in the CPT?
SPODE
All of those calling her “Captain Obvious” should keep in mind what she’s responding to.
Trying to pound blindingly obvious tenets (taxing something reduces it, limiting profit potential discourages desire and effort, etc.) into the thick skulls of pandering populists is ponderous and often fruitless, but still necessary, work.
@22 – Pray Tell, who is?
She has the balls to sit there with a dead zebra over her head? I’m sure she went to a zoo with her idiot sister, Palin, and shot it.
She’ so smart and she married one of those fucking fake wrestlers?
Her 15 minutes will be up soon enough.
22- I agree! He’s the Hope and Change we’ve been waiting for!
“Four legs good! Two legs better!”
Know where that quote is from 22? We’ll be living it soon.
Why the hell is JPM asking me to sign in everytime I visit DB? Is it logging my visits or something? Is this maybe just for the IB?
I don’t want to have to read on the crackberry just to get news.
Whitney finally realized her incessant attacking of banks and financial firms is going to come back and bite her in the paycheck.
She’s found religion: maybe running the big banks into the ground just leads to more compensation among research analysts.
wow. gasbags is getting slammed by the entire cnbc crew, now.
he just said, “i can go somewhere else and do this.”
gasbags days are numbered.
@28
Dude, animal farm? seriously ? I think you should spend this afternoon&evening looking yourself in the mirror and thinking your life over. Maybe the light will turn on.
@31
So let him go already…everytime he is on air it turns into rampa room anyway…it’s a joke and he is a bufoon!
wow. gasbags is getting slammed by the entire cnbc crew, now.
he just said, “i can go somewhere else and do this.”
gasbags days are numbered.
@18 – W handed the mess over to O in the “I had it you got it” method of turnover. Blaming O is like blaming the pastor of a shotgun wedding for the bride being knocked up at the altar.
All I know is that McCain wouldn’t have done any better, and Palin would have spent all her time on Investopedia before trying to open her beak.
@12 – Barbaric students generally come from barbaric parents who should have been sterilized.
Hmmm maybe Whitney shoudl disclose her salary vs. the profitabiloity of that that shit show, Oppenheimer, that she works for. Or maybe let peek at Bud Lowenthal’s comp and his idiot son too!
@3 Caution!
Referencing Ayn Rand around here is almost as bad as questioning whether or not Obama is the Messiah.
…..regardless of the relevance, hmm, actually because of the relevance
@15 I couldn’t agree more.
the few people with talent will go do something talented rather than work at these government sponsored monoliths. The question is, once the grownups leave C, MS, USG, etc. Who will rise to replace them?
-The BAC Lycan
All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.
The Hominid known as Whitney is much more equal than an Equus burchelli.
-C
15 – People who know something work at big banks?
Bunch of untalented spoiled brats with Ivy League resumes.
But the Obama administation has already taught us why democrats like all these taxes. Because none of them botherto fucking PAY them!!!
That may have been true in the past, but where are those “talents” going to go now that will pay even close to that?
For all I care, they can all leave the industry. Those fucking idiots got us here in the first place. With friends like that, who needs enemies?
22 – neither was Bush but folks had no problem blaming him. So despite the fact I saved and protected my capital, I feel I’m not benefitting from all this “stimulus” and henceforth, will begin finding problems and blaming them on Obama.
@32 – Ah, you know the book and I must have hit a sore spot with my Obama/Animal Farm comments…. And that’s the best come back you have? My mistake, I thought I had a better opponent.
@41 – duh dum, chhhhhhhhh
It’s the Golden Rule fellas: He who has the gold, makes the rules. If you want to quit because of this, please feel free. There are thousands who can easily take your place. You aren’t that special.
@2 They could always travel the country “selling” aluminum siding to honest hardworking people and then abscond with the down payment money and move on to the next town (although I suspect this scam will be unfulfilling due to its relative lack of sophistication, small scale, and the requirement of making eye contact with the victims)
Perhaps they could cook up an elaborate way steal to money from charities and university endowments? Never mind, that’s been done.
Kiting checks? Not enough money. Kidnapping children and selling their bodies piece by piece on the black market? Hmmm. Again they’d have to see their victims.
I’ve got it! They could sell sugar pills to people dying of cancer! It’s scalable, lucrative, and dishonest, takes advantage of people, requires little intelligence, and relies mostly on sales skills. A perfect fit if there ever was one. The venture can be organized as corporation (to avoid and/or wholly dilute any sense of personal accountability) and the pills could be sold on the internet and delivered via common carrier to completely insulate the ex-Wall Streeters from their victims.
Get down,
HH
47, I-Bankers become Big Pharma Reps? Brilliant!
@10 – Moron, I guess you have been right on the money the whole time??
@15 Look, even with cap the jobs on Wall St will still be some of highest paying jobs in the country. There are tons of jobs that are out there that won’t pay as well as wall street jobs will continue to pay, even with the $500k cap, which is only in place, and only if, these companies take money from the government. These companies deserve to fail, and they deserve to lose their top talent to the banks that didn’t get involved in this tangled mess. In a truly efficient market most of these entities would fail and newer banks would sprout up, that can afford to pay higher compensation, because they don’t need TARP money.
GFY FWIW etc; etc; etc;
not 32 but 44 is a retarded fuckwit. Your college freshman take on compensation is more suited to the Bush years.
This whole “top talent” thing is really laughable. Go ahead, spend a few weeks trying to get a new job because you can’t handle chafing under the 500k cap. You’ll be back. To quote Shawshank, you gonna swallow what we give you to swallow.
She might have to go from three lamps to only one. The humanity!
@37 – NOW you’ve done it. Watch out for pitchforks.
55 ftw
Weird. I posted 55 when 56 was 55 and mine was supposed to be 56.
So now 56 ftw.
37-
I laugh in the face of danger! Anyone who wants to argue with me should proceed with great caution.
I am Dangy Taggart.
With Love,
#3
I love all of the arm chair qb’s in kansas who think “the bankers” got us into this mess. let’s be clear, an M&A guy has fk-all to do with sub-prime, he gets paid an “advisory fee” – no risk. the guys in cap markets take some risk, but nothing along the lines of the prop traders. last I checked, my bonus wasn’t helped by the guys on the desk, but it sure was hurt when they made a few wrong bets. so before you call the end to “banking” make sure you know wtf you’re talking about. I’m done with the black box that determines bonuses at the houses that are “too big” to fail – eating what you kill is the new model…it’s nice knowing that when a deal closes you’re getting x% of the fee.
I think everyone is freaking out a bit prematurely. Yes, bonus will be shitty for a few years. But things will rebound. And people, in general, have short memories. I don’t think it’ll ever be like it was. But make no mistake, you can still be in finance and make a very nice living. And if you don’t think so, then go try something else.
@19 – You are my hero. Love that.
@ 56. forgot to enable iteration. head just exploded.
anyone have first year numbers on TARP exec pay?
57 – you sure you’re dangy? Maybe offred? Given the constituency running things for the last 8 years.
Cluz — it’s all the same people that think wall st and main st are mutually exclusive and share no common ground. Isn’t eating what you kill the old old old model? The more things change…
@fun – you know I’m old school like that…
@blndebnker – when are we going out? I’ve got john legend tix for tomorrow…
Shame on Meredith Whitney for buying, and owning a zebra “rug.” Displays a remarkable lack of empathy for the natural world, and the animals in it. Clearly, she didn’t go to Wall Street to save the world.
@26 – I think MW and hubby body-slammed it to death.
Shame on Meredith Whitney for buying, and owning a zebra “rug.” Displays a remarkable lack of empathy for the natural world, and the animals in it. Clearly, she didn’t go to Wall Street to save the world.
Shame on Meredith Whitney for buying, and owning a zebra “rug.” Displays a remarkable lack of empathy for the natural world, and the animals in it. Clearly, she didn’t go to Wall Street to save the world.
Shame on Meredith Whitney for buying, and owning a zebra “rug.” Displays a remarkable lack of empathy for the natural world, and the animals in it. Clearly, she didn’t go to Wall Street to save the world.
@Cluz – You name the time and place! Weren’t we supposed to get some drinks together forever ago? John Legend eh…?
Her comments confirm the complete and utter worthlessness of the vast majority of tools working in the financial industry. This day has been a long time coming. Let the “top talent” drain — you can probably hire entire teams of trained chimps (for a lot less than 500 large) who may actually be able to add some value.
@65
Shame on you for putting that dirty, dirty, image in my minds eye.
– @26
You all sound like a bunch of welfare beotches whining about your gummint check. When your banks made deals with the devil, did you really think there wouldn’t be strings attached?
Now get to work, take your abilities, mix with private money, and either buy back the TARP funds or start your own firm. You can have an $18BB bonus EACH when you’re creating at least that much value and doing it with private capital.
@57 – you watch too many kung fu movies.
@blnde – friday afterwork drinks. girl knows the place. what’s good for you – soho, village or murray hill?
She must have gotten to it after Bear Grylls.
Merediths Zebra:
http://www.evtv1.com/player.aspx?itemnum=8420
@Cluz – Ahhh going away for the weekend!! But for future reference, wherever. Murray Hill is closest but I don’t have a pref.
Cluz — what no love for me on the john legend invite??
And I’m always on favor of that model, so the madoff boys will be eating fish, while bernie eats….?
Fun – You can take my ticket… I don’t want to get in the way of a good bromance.
@51 – Where in no. 28 or no. 44 do I ever mention “compensation” or any thoughts thereto? But I notice the Bush reference so I can deduce your political affiliation thus the Animal Farm/socialism reference has gotten your blood pressure up… Please respond again as I am always delighted to read the self-indicting vulgarity of a fool.
@22 He is sure as hell responsible for this mess of a “solution” though
It’s still the poors
@blnde – you always have an excuse. let’s see how spontaneous you are: tonight murray hill. shoot me an email (it’s on the profile) and I’ll tell you where.
@fun – sorry bro, if I took you – it would be a little awk. people might confuse me for GAnalYst (no disrespect to the g-man).
Blnde — thanks for the re-gift
Cluz — two dudes at a john legend concert, not much confusing about that. Maybe you can get Bess to go with you!
Is she wearing a snuggie in that picture?
@fun – you may have a point. why bring sand to the beach, right? will keep you posted, but the ex has been hounding me for the ticket…
what’s with the “lamp-based compensation” post, am I seeing things?
Is she wearing a snuggie in that picture?
@clu
I’ve seen that in other thread. Must be a bug …
@58 Cluzo, do you really believe all the M&A activity wasn’t linked to the whole securitzation machine?
Bank can’t do M&A deal because cost of BB debt = too high. Enter the syndicate guys and the CLO desk pushing BB spreads down. Now, bank gets the green light on that shitty M&A mandate.
OR, at a broader level, company X decides to acquire company Y because of Y’s tremendous growth story. Bank gets M&A mandate. Too bad Y’s growth was fueled by qb in Kansas and his bros across the country treating their home like an ATM thanks to Bank’s ability to securitize second lien home eq.
We’re *all* a part of this clusterfuck.
It looks like a large portion of her compensation was Lamp-based.
FUNdamental- Who said I fully supported the last 8 years?
she’s lucky she got 3 lamps and a snuggie. i only got a sham wow and jar of mayo.
Newman: I had gone up to Westchester. I go there every Tuesday. I do charity for the blind in my spare time for the Lighthouse. I was in the middle of a game of Parcheesi with an old blind man and I excused myself to call my friend as he was very depressed lately because he never became a banker.
Judge: I don’t understand.
Newman: You see, it’d been his lifelong dream to be a banker and he uh, just the day before he was turned down by another bank. I believe it was the Manufacturer’s Hanover on Lexington and 40th Street. That was the third bank to turn him down so I was-I was a little concerned. I wanted to see how he was doing. Well, Your Honor, he was barely audible. But I distinctly recall him say…
@Cluzo – Game on.
@Fun – Ouch. See I try to do something nice for you…
8: What’ll they do once we go to a socialized medicine system?
Blnde — that’ll teach you to be nice! Maybe I’ll get to return the favor sometime.
Pe – eh I was just trying to stir up shit on a quiet weds and bush usually does the trick.
Cluz — maybe you and the ex are still tight, otherwise who cares what she’s hounding you for? (you know I’m just busting your balls about the concert and have no actual interest in going right?)
Meredith, and all the girls, go crazy for my sugar lumps.
-Jermaine
Whitney made more $$$ than any of you clowns this year. I support her analysis on this
Wideclop’s clop is wider than Whitney’s.
@98 – giddyup!
@85 What she’s wearing is a Heaven’s Gate robe, and in her right hand (you can’t see it, but I know it’s there) is a glass full of Kool Aid.
@fun – you and I both know the dealio…
@blnde – it’s on like donkey kong!
OK how is this a bad thing? The compensation in finance has been so high that lots of smart young talent has been going into it over the last 20 years instead of into fields that actually make / produce stuff. Whoever above said read Schumpeter is right. The smart, talented people will either start their own financial entities or leave banking entirely and use their talents to make lots of money in other areas. The ex-frat boy idiots who can’t think their way out of a paper bag but have been making crazy money will find that the world is not going to keep rewarding their lack of ability with the same kind of money.
Obama is using government’s power to redirect human capital in ways more productive to society. Good for him.
@92, name brand or store brand mayo?
@103 Fuckin’ A, just like a good community organizer should!
Let them leave, but they should remember that Uncle Sam can still fuck them financially regardless of where they go. HF’s & PE’s have yet to hear from Uncle Sam. We’ll see what happens there.
TGFD has to think that CDSwaps aren’t exactly what makes the world turn on its axis.
The Guy from Delaware
@89 – as a relationship banker (in FIG), I can tell you for a fact – I didn’t get business because some monkey did a CDO, CLO or CDS trade with one of my clients. In fact, I lost a client because some joker on the desk fk’d his treasury guy on a trade. don’t paint us all with the same brush…
BTW, I forgot to say in my #106 post…
Maybe all that so-called “top talent” will have a very easy time finding new, lucrative jobs. So easy in fact that each one of them will obviously just blow right on by every other one on his way to the next big, wide-open position. I also imagine that all the laid-off people will present no obstacle to all that “top f’n talent” on their way to the big gig.
Uncle Sam? No Problem. Fucked Economy? No Problem. Fucked Wall St? No Problem. Surely not for those clowns.
The Guy from Delaware
I thought Barack wanted to “bail out wall street to save MAIN STREET”.. now what does he think putting a cap on salaries is going to do, help main street?
@104, walmart brand. and i was top tier.
@109 – BLASPHEMER!!! Speak not ill of The Messiah lest ye be cast from the Garden of Hope and pelted with Change . . .
We are all screwed! But I do have a tip… if you haven’t tried cat food yet, put a little French’s yellow mustard in it and spead it over rye toast. Not so bad.
It seems many got dropped on their heads on a regular basis while babies.
Otherwise why would they blame Obama for the mess Bush created? gotta love ideological imbeciles. They’re like the retard next door. Just smile and be nice, and always be on your guard. Never know when the retard will come at you with a steak knife.
@112
Pass the Grey Poupon mate.
Suck it up pigs and piglets. IKEA has a good meatball special and two hot dogs for a buck!
A P.S. to my #108 posting…
On second thought, TGFD suggests that all the “top talent” just quit right now and open up their personal accounts over at Fidelity. They can trade anything they want, from mutual funds to pork bellies, from options to CDSwaps. Anything they want; $8 or less per trade.
With all that talent they have, they can really do well, make a killing even.
I do wonder how big their balls are, though. After all, they’ll be gambling with their own money every time they swing for the fence on a play. It’s easy to be brave with OPM at risk.
Maybe they really don’t have any courage at all. Maybe they’re just too timid inside. Too used to that big paycheck and the big bonus checks that come from fucking up in a very narrow segment of a large system.
I doubt if very many of them could even make a living as a self-employed investor.
The Guy from Delaware
@107 Cluzo
Of course, I’m not suggesting as direct a link. What I’m saying is that the actions of groups of banks in the securitization markets enabled groups of banks to execute transactions they otherwise could not have (by cheapening credit).
M&A volume and LBO volume peaks in the 2006-2007 time period are directly correlated with the cheap credit – for consumers as well as corporates that the MBS, CDO, CLOs etc provided.
I’d put my money on the guy who has the money.
@103
Using government power to redirect human resources? I agree, we need this to be done, stat! We need to “nudge” people to make the right choices; that’s what government is for. What we need is a cultural change in this country. We need a cultural revolution. Nothing like moving people out of the cities and back into the country. Oh Dear Leader, how we adore you! Please, nudge us to make the proper decisions in life.
113, I’m not fan of Bush. But blaming him for this mess isn’t altogether fair since Clinton had a hand in it too as well as Congress and a whole host of other people. Face it. There is no one person to blame but a large section of the American public (Main Street). Pointing fingers at those who got rich in the process rather than the small guy who benefited just gets you elected, but not necessarily right.
@120
The small guys are wiped out already. Get it? Of course you don’t.
Who would have predicted Meredith would comp to defense on comp? The real concern is a bunch of politicians talking about Wall Street with broad strokes as idiots and thieves. If the logic is a few define the masses, assume we should refer to Senators and Congress as a bunch of tax dodging whores with lengthy wrap sheets. Also can someone just remind everyone that for starters the $18 billion figure includes restricted stock that is already under grant price and second whatever cash you get, close to 50% goes back to state, federal and local tax coffers. Lastly, many firms made money for full year and still crushed staff on comp. Cap on pay with comparison to President ignores several minor items like free room and board, Airforce one, speaking fees after office, book deals, pension, etc. While some people where overpaid in retrospect, the same politicians such as Barney Frank where approving the packages for the likes of Harold Raines. While some view this as payback for excess, reality is the creators of this mess are long gone. With 250k jobs gone in industry, stock wealth in firms destroyed, what else are they looking for?
@122
Are you sure about Harold Raines? There’s a Harold Baines, great baseball player. I’m sure Rush is deaf so he gets his pronunciation wrong sometimes. Try again.
@123 – I believe he meant the old fannie mae boss FRANKLIN RAINES:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Raines
let’s get the facts before we post people, thanks.
@117 – agreed, cheap credit allowed a lot of bad actors to get away with things they otherwise shouldn’t have been allowed to do. that said, it was the shadow banking sector that caused the bulk of the mess. ie. if we didn’t have all these un-regulated mortgage “banks”, there wouldn’t have been as much sub-prime to go around (not saying it wouldn’t have existed, but it would left less to mop up)…
@124 – Unregulated mortgage banks did nothing more than front run the 900 lb gorillas known as Fan and Fred. Please, those guys had limitless appetite for EVERYTHING that was remotely related to housing. They needed product and pretty soon everyone started reaching for yield (credit work be dmned).
As for guys leaving the Street… the smart ones already did. Once the next wave of folks (call them C+ to B+ guys) leave, you will be left with risk averse zombies who won’t lose much money, but they won’t make you much either. Its a global marketplace for winners and NYC remaining the center of the financial world is not written in stone.
I say let these wall street hot shots start trading their own accounts instead of sinking the funds that have thousands of investors dollars at risk….. if these guys are so good they should be able to make a fortune with their own money……. I trade my own accounts and I’m doing ok, sure as hell not gonna let these punks on wall street touch my accounts.