If there's chagrin on Wall Street about the TARP bonus limits tucked into the stimulus, here's a chart that should at least help bankers understand where the country's anger is coming from.

In 2008, a year in which most firms lost tens of billions of dollars and had to be rescued by taxpayers, Wall Street paid itself more than it did in 2000, at the peak of the wildly profitable technology bubble.

If there was any doubt left that bonuses reward performance, this Wall Street Journal chart should put it to rest. (Click through for the interactive version).