Just two years after the global financial crisis that threatened to destroy the banking industry, Wall Street bonuses have hit a record high. According to The Wall Street Journal, employees at America's biggest banks are set to reward themselves with $144 billion in compensation and benefits this year — a 4 percent increase over last year's record haul. The hefty bonuses come as many industries continue to struggle in the face of difficult economic conditions and the jobless rate holds steady at 9.6 percent. Has Wall Street overstepped yet again? (Watch an MSNBC discussion about the record bonuses)
Wall Street spends while America burns: Main Street folks will be outraged by this, says Jill Schlesinger at CBS Moneywatch, and rightly so. "Banks who survived the financial crisis due to taxpayer largess" are thriving, while the taxpayers themselves continue to struggle with the impact of the recession. The president "wimped out" when it came to reining these banks in. Now, shareholders must do the decent thing and "push for real reform."
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