Never in the history of Wall St have so many... (Bloomberg)

[katty]

more:

http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-bzbonu074964689nov07,0,271479,print.story?coll=ny-business-print

Wall Street's wild windfall
Earnings help NYC cut estimated deficit as brokerages' $36B in bonuses prime pump for luxury-goods sales

BLOOMBERG NEWS

November 7, 2006

Never in the history of Wall Street have so many earned so much in so little time.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch & Co., Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Bear Stearns Cos. are about to reward their 173,000 employees with $36 billion in bonuses. That's a 30 percent increase from last year's record, and it doesn't include the billions more that will be paid by Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., the three largest U.S. banks, as well as the hundreds of hedge funds and private-equity firms that constitute the financial industry.

Enriched by the unprecedented value of takeovers, equity trading and credit derivatives, "this year will be the best ever for the major brokerage firms," said Brad Hintz, an analyst at Manhattan-based Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.

The average windfall for each individual at the five largest U.S. securities firms will be enough to buy a $165,000 Bentley Continental GT, the two-door coupe favored by Paris Hilton and Cher. They'll have plenty of change for a box of Romeo y Julieta cigars and a case of Pol Roger champagne - the stuff enjoyed by Winston Churchill, Britain's prime minister in the 1940s and 1950s.

[patrice]

1. If there ever was a case against the nature of Capitalism, these people

are prooving it.

[RedStateShame]

2. Gordon Gecko is alive and well

[smirkymonkey]

3. This makes me sick - and how many will get pink slips this

holiday season? :puke:

[katty]

4. it is sickening as people are homeless,starving, jobless in U.S.