Let the Wall St. "Talent" Walk

sretjkeu

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unpackuct of AL @ Nov 01, 2009 08:20:10 AM

agreed

I agree with the author completely. My brother in-law was a VP at Bear-Sterns (not one of the folks who led the company into Bankruptcy). There is no point in saving the current system. Let the chips fall where they may. I'm all for survival of the fittest. Why should Wall St be any different?

Tom Esposito of PA @ Jun 14, 2009 17:44:29 PM

Why do bonuses need to be paid?

It seems strange to me that no one is questioning that these bonuses need to be paid! We've heard that they have contracts that require the payment of the bonus. I think these contracts are invalid for lack of consideration. How is promising to remain on a job that time has shown you don't know how to perform, and may even have compromised the whole business environment by creating and sustaining a moral hazard consideration for receiving a bonus. This should be a question of fact to be determined by a jury. Let them sue for their bonuses. It may bring even more light to what is going on; which might mean that they wouldn't even bother to sue as they don't want light to be shinning on their job performance!

Terry G of MI @ Mar 22, 2009 18:16:58 PM

Mea Culpa

Jonathan Swift here:

My previous comments about careless bloggers was not intended to criticize Rick Newman's article above (with which I am very sympatico but I was intending to express disappointment with the commentary that followed... (Admittedly by this oversight, I may have made the same kind of careless mistake that I was criticizing in the previous comments... oops!)

In fact, I hope I have found in Mr. Newman an important sympathizer who understands how grossly overrated "expert executives" have been obscenely rewarded for perceived talents that are misjudged. The Board of Directors culture that supports outsized executive compensation for self-serving decisions that sometimes work and sometime do not is a lazy surrender to indefensible convenient decisions that make their well compensated BOD positions easier but often don't protect the shareholders' interests.

There are, of course, CEO's well worth their big compensation: e.g. Jobs of Apple; Chambers of CISCO, etc. but those guys would probably have a comparably splendid performance even without their outsized financial compensation - satisfaction of a job well done. Of course, they sometimes make bad decisions too, but they use judgement so they know the risks and don't "bet the farm" on questionable outcomes.

J.

Jonathan Swift of HI @ Mar 15, 2009 23:26:33 PM

I really have trouble with bloggers who do this

People who have the chutzpah to write these "I know what I'm talking about and you need to listen to me" blogs should at least make sure that their spelling, grammar and editing are accurate before we can take what else they have to say seriously. Not that that will necessarily guarantee a modicum of sensibility, but... it is a start! How much trouble is it to do that and why not do it to show that you are serious?

I find it difficult to believe that people who don't take the trouble to check their own submissions for language accuracy have also taken the trouble to check up on the factual validity of their flaming comments.

Incidentally, if someone gets a transmission of this note that seems to indicate I may have erred... I can assure you that it's due to transmission inconsistencies!

Jonathan

Jonathan Swift of HI @ Mar 15, 2009 22:23:53 PM

What would sweat hogs do?

If Wall Street's top talent can loose billions if not trillions, just think what sweat hogs can do? It to Phd mathematicians to write algorithms to take subprime mortgages and magically turn them into AAA rated instruments. It turns out their algorithm was based on very flawed assumptions.

Let's not stop just blaming best and brightest on Wall Street. There are best and brightest loosers else where. You know I remember in August of 2007 that there was concern that Wall Street was loosing out to the London Stock Exchange. The issue was that US regulations didn't allow 40 to 1 leverage and London did. So the major brokerage houses didn't like what Daddy said so they when to Mommy to get it. Quit beating up the SEC, well don't quit just back off a little. They sort of did their job.

Keep in mind that the Merrills and Bear Stearns of the world are called brokerage houses for a reason. They usually live up to their name and get you broker. I know an old joke.

The premise here, what's wrong with the average person? They are usually more loyal, don't come up with outlandish investment schemes and don't expect seven and eight figure compensation packages.

zeezeetop of TX @ Mar 15, 2009 09:29:05 AM

What would sweat hogs do?

If Wall Street's top talent can loose billions if not trillions, just think what sweat hogs can do? It to Phd mathematicians to write algorithms to take subprime mortgages and magically turn them into AAA rated instruments. It turns out their algorithm was based on very flawed assumptions.

Let's not stop just blaming best and brightest on Wall Street. There are best and brightest loosers else where. You know I remember in August of 2007 that there was concern that Wall Street was loosing out to the London Stock Exchange. The issue was that US regulations didn't allow 40 to 1 leverage and London did. So the major brokerage houses didn't like what Daddy said so they when to Mommy to get it. Quit beating up the SEC, well don't quit just back off a little. They sort of did their job.

Keep in mind that the Merrills and Bear Stearns of the world are called brokerage houses for a reason. They usually live up to their name and get you broker. I know an old joke.

The premise here, what's wrong with the average person? They are usually more loyal, don't come up with outlandish investment schemes and don't expect seven and eight figure compensation packages.

zeezeetop of TX @ Mar 15, 2009 09:27:43 AM

Wall Street Talent?

These people that work at wall street don't "earn" any bonuses they get. It's simply a system put in place to take a piece of anyone's pie who wants to own stock. It's an institution built on greed and vacant of morals.

Isn't all this great "talent" what got us where we are today?

fred framekler of CA @ Mar 13, 2009 19:10:16 PM