Wall Street May Break Pay Record -- Again

Peacenik says this story about record Wall Street compensation. The too big to fail banks and Wall St. firms are bankrupt. They only exist by phony accounting rules. Their executives should be in jail. But wait. Another story heralds the rise of the GOP. The same lying, incompetent, corrupt, warmongers who led the world into this mess are about to take over congress. But wait. The Washington Post reports progress in Afghanistan. Of course this is simply propaganda. But nothing is too preposterous for the neo con pages of the Post. The United States is going crazy. Is crazy. It is a symptom of collapse. The death rattle of a society. And unfortunately it will be the tea partiers, the birthers, fascists, and the kooks who will emerge to start something new. And something very bad.

Wall Street is on track to pay its employees $144 billion this year, breaking a record for the second year in a row, the Wall Street Journal reports. Despite financial reform intended to curb compensation, and a steep decline in trading volume, pay in the financial services industry has shown few signs of fading.
Pay is expected to rise at 26 out of the 35 firms according to the WSJ. According to it's analysis, the $144 billion overall figure is a 4 percent increase over last year's $139 billion. Revenue on Wall Street grew only 3 percent this year, the WSJ says, but, unlike at some businesses outside the financial sector, employee compensation remains a high priority.

The Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation, passed in July, gives regulators the power to write rules governing executive pay. But it remains to be seen how effective -- or restrictive -- those rules will be. Last month, regulators from the SEC, the FDIC and the Federal Reserve testified before the House Financial Services Committee, to explain how they intended to curb executive compensation. But as the rule-making is still in progress, the conversation included few specific strategies or numbers.

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