Just Think If They’d Had a Good Year!

The New York Times reports on New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s report on bonuses paid last year to Wall Street bankers and traders. We were apparently mistaken about how bad 2008 was. As it turns out, it was good for some people whose companies had very bad years.

At Citigroup, 738 top dogs were paid $1 million or more in bonuses for 2008, totaling $5.33 billion. Citi lost $27.7 billion. It received $45 billion in government bailout funds.

At the now merged Bank of America and Merrill Lynch, 868 people were paid bonuses of at least $1 million. BOA earned $4 billion in 2008. Merrill lost $27.6 billion. The two companies received a total of $45 billion in bailout money.

Goldman Sachs turned a profit of $2.3 billion and paid more than twice that amount in bonuses ($4.8). It received $10 billion in bailout money.

Morgan Stanley earned $1.7 billion, paid $4.5 billion in bonuses, and received $10 billion in bailout funds.

JPMorgan Chase earned $5.6 billion, paid $ 8.69 billion in bonuses, and received $25 billion in bailout money.

I’m not making this up, unless Attorney General Cuomo made it up. If you want a more complete list, read his entire report. Warning: could cause severe nauseau.

Now that the recession is over, there’s no telling what kind of bonuses will be paid.