

Five years after Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy plunged the global economy into chaos, over 11 million Americans remain unemployed — including nearly all Wall Street CEOs at the center of the crisis. But none of the executives have faced any criminal charges nor appear to be suffering for their contributions to the worst recession since the Great Depression. Quite the contrary.



The former CEOs of Wall Street’s biggest firms circa 2008 are “living in quiet luxury,” according to a report this week by The Center for Public Integrity. The 5 former CEOs examined by the Center – Dick Fuld (Lehman Brothers) Jimmy Cayne (Bear Stearns), Stanley O’Neal (Merrill Lynch), Chuck Prince (Citigroup) and Ken Lewis (Bank of America) -- took home nearly $1.5 billion in total compensation from 2000 to 2008.



It’s an astounding amount of money, especially given their collective incompetence and mismanagement, for which we’re all still paying.



By Aaron Task













