From Louise Story’s “The Reckoning” feature in yesterdays NY Times:
“A 30-something trader with a $180,000 salary got $5 million [in bonuses].
But Merrill’s record earnings in 2006 — $7.5 billion — turned out to be a mirage. The company has since lost three times that amount, largely because the mortgage investments that supposedly had powered some of those profits plunged in value.
Unlike the earnings, however, the bonuses have not been reversed.”
Sounds kinda like the Mafia. Except with the Mafia these people would have gotten whacked.