What is more dangerous to you? American Greed or the Taliban?
Loved Ones…the figures released on Thursday by the New York attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo, provided the most detailed accounting yet of Wall Street's millionaire ranks.

In the report, Mr. Cuomo said that 738 bankers and traders at Citigroup took home bonuses of $1 million or more in 2008 even as the bank posted a $27.7 billion loss.

In all, Citigroup paid $5.33 billion in bonuses; it received $45 billion in bailout funds.

Bank of America and Merrill Lynch, whose merger brought the combined company to the brink of collapse, paid 868 employees bonuses worth at least $1 million.

Both banks, whose compensation packages are being reviewed by a federal pay czar, turned to the government twice for bailouts, receiving a total of $45 billion.

Merrill's bonuses totaled $3.6 billion in a year that it lost $27.6 billion, the report said, while Bank of America paid $3.3 billion in bonuses on $4 billion in earnings.

Wall Street's more profitable firms were more generous, even though they also received government support. At Goldman Sachs, 953 bankers and traders took home bonuses worth at least $1 million last year, including 212 employees who received more than $3 million.

The investment bank paid a total of $4.8 billion in bonuses last year, the report said, more than twice its earnings of $2.3 billion. The bank got $10 billion in bailout funds.

Morgan Stanley paid nearly 428 employees bonuses of at least $1 million, including 290 who received more than $2 million.

Morgan Stanley, which earned $1.7 billion last year and received $10 billion in federal aid, paid $4.5 billion in bonuses.

JPMorgan Chase paid 1,626 employees bonuses of more than $1 million in 2008 and received $25 billion in federal assistance.
The bank earned $5.6 billion, while its bonuses totaled $8.69 billion.

Is domestic born greed more dangerous to you than the foreign Taliban?

You and all your loved ones are always in my prayers,

Samuel Joseph Bell
www.angelicinfusion.com
- posted by Samuel Bell @ 4:18 AM