What Red Ink_ Wall Street Paid Hefty Bonuses

How do you like that? Despite the fact that Wall Street got hammered in 2008, bonuses flowed. Indeed, 2008 marked the sixth-highest payout on record for bonuses. Nice work if you can get it, eh? The New York State comptroller, which bases its estimate on personal income tax collections, says that it doesn’t know if taxpayer money was used to fund bonuses, writes the New York Times. The comptroller, though, says that the Obama administration should investigate the issue closely. From the Times:The state comptroller, Thomas P. DiNapoli, said it was unclear if banks had used taxpayer money for the bonuses, a possibility that strikes corporate governance experts, and indeed many ordinary Americans, as outrageous. He urged the Obama administration to examine the issue closely.“The issue of transparency is a significant one, and there needs to be an accounting about whether there was any taxpayer money used to pay bonuses or to pay for corporate jets or dividends or anything else,” Mr. DiNapoli said in an interview. ….Echoing Mr. DiNapoli, Professor Bebchuk said he was concerned that banks might be using taxpayer money to subsidize bonuses or dividends to stockholders. “What the government has been trying to do is shore up capital, and any diversion of capital out of banks, whether in the form of dividends or large payments to employees, really undermines what we are trying to do,” he said.I’d be surprised if an investigation is not launched. We shall see.