"Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch set aside a combined $33.3 billion to pay salaries, bonuses and benefits in the first nine months of this year, down 20 percent from $41.8 billion in the same period in 2007. Banks typically pay about two-thirds of the total in year-end bonuses.

Since 2003, the five biggest Wall Street firms have paid about $145 billion in bonuses. "

That means, about $75 billion (or 1/2 of all bonuses paid between 2003 and 2008) has been paid out over the past 18-20 months. Seems to me that they are looting the company, paying out most of the bonuses when the company is failing and the government is throwing money at them. Jerks.

What is the point of spending your short life being miserable with fear over that which you cannot control? Maybe in two years you will be on a bread line, maybe not. Maybe you will be dead, maybe not. Meanwhile, go have an ice cream cone, watch a sunset, hug your spouse and kids, and be kind to others.

These gents know a lot more about chaos, black swans, math and economics than the average economist, and they are very, very afraid of a total financial meltdown. Taleb went so far as saying that he is not sleeping well any longer.

I would not bet against them.

Yeah that was good one. The article had shown what the bonus pools for 2008 vs 2007 were (40B vs 33B) Too bad the author did not connect the dots to show us how much government money( direct or indirect) kept those ibanks out of bankruptcy. Gotta love it though — a something about a leopard can’t change its spots — even when drowning

“Frank Calls for ‘Moratorium’ on Wall Street Bonuses”.

Will it see the day before the huge 2008 pay-out?