Leave the bonuses alone

January

The first impulse when we heard about how Wall Street contributed to the economy hitting the skids was to dock their billions of dollars in bonuses.

But now we’re seeing the proof that doing so would only make matters worse, even if it gave us some measure of revenge for the impact on our investments.

According to state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, cash bonuses paid out to Wall Street employees dropped by 44 percent compared to those paid out in 2007.

That’s going to mean a dramatic drop in state income tax revenue, although Gov. David Paterson says that loss won’t add to the state’s deficit because the amounts had already been projected.

Following that logic, deeper cuts in bonuses would only have hurt the state more, with even less income tax revenue collected.

So, rather than collecting a total of $32.9 billion in bonuses as they did in 2007, Wall Street types took home a total of just $18.4 billion for 2008.

Poor babies.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 29th, 2009 at 1:28 pm by Bob Baird.
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One Response to “Leave the bonuses alone”

Steve C. January 29th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
My heart’s broken over it. Considering they got those bonuses by laying people off. and outsourcing to get cheaper people to work that arent as talented.

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