| Wall Street bonuses are increasing again "GREED is good!" boomed Michael Douglas in the 1987 film "Wall Street." Though an anthem of the perceived excesses of the time, the bonuses then forked out to financiers were relatively meager: $32,000 on average. The sum would grow four-fold in the 1990s. And then it soared higher still, reaching a peak just before the financial crisis. In 2006 New York's investment banks paid nearly $40 billion in bonuses (adjusted for inflation)—about ten times the budget of the United Nations. During the crisis, banks had to show contrition and bonuses halved. But they have restarted their ascent. In 2013 the bonus pool of New York's financial-sector employees increased 15% to about $27 billion, as discussed in an item from this week's issue here. |
