by Eric Martin

A microcosm of how warped the incentives, practices and ethics are on Wall Street and in the country's major financial institutions:

[Today the] New York Times [has a] story on ailing banks that are nevertheless doling out huge bonus packages. This is a throwback to 2008, when failing banks like Merrill Lynch paid out huge bonuses at the same time that they were incurring catastrophic losses. But one bank in particular stood out in the Times article: Citigroup. According to the Times, “Citigroup paid its employees so much in 2009 — $24.9 billion — that the company more than wiped out every penny of profit”:

[T]o keep up with the Goldmans, laggards like Citigroup are handing out fat slices of their profits, leaving little left over for their shareholders. Citigroup is, in effect, paying its employees $1.45 for every dollar the company took in last year. On average, its workers stand to earn $94,000 each.

Just pause and let that sink in. Their compensation packages exceed the company's revenue profits. At a time when the company is propped up on the taxpayer's dime(s). Unconscionable. Hand me a pitchfork, and grab ye a torch.

And to think, some people are complaining that the meager restrictions placed on the institutions that received TARP money - and those that received unrealistic dollar for dollar payouts from AIG after the U.S. government piped in billions - go too far. Right. Like that would even be remotely possible in today's political environment, which will surely get better now that the caps are off on corporate spending circa election time.

This will not end well.

UPDATE: See, also, Kevin Drum on the financial industry's gaming of the mortgage relief effort. Turns out, it's less about relief than it is about further jamming borrowers who are already struggling to pay off debts. Lovely.