New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s report on the bonus structures of the banking industry is out and — oh my— it’s damning. The AG says that 3 banks, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and JP. Morgan Chase, paid out bonuses that ” were substantially greater than the banks’ net income.”
The report says that combined, these three firms earned $9.6 billion, paid bonuses of nearly $18 billion, and received TARP taxpayer funds worth $45 billion. Why did this happen? Because, according to Cuomo, when times were good the bankers rewarded themselves based on performance. When the economy started to sour — they decoupled the bonus structure from reality and kept rewarding themselves.
