As for Wall Street bonuses, if you don't pay your employees they won't work for you..
it wasn't the bankers you see every day getting these bonuses. it was bonuses to the board of directors and the CEO. that is it! the the employees working on derivatives may have been tossed a bone but the overwhelming majority of bonuses did not go to employees.
It goes to all of them. Again, I worked on Wall Street. For most financial services employees, their bonus is most of their compensation. They might have a salary of $30K a year and get a $300K bonus. That's the way it works. If they don't deliver, they get out obviously very quickly because bonuses are based on performance. The attacks on Wall Street bonuses are just ridiculous sanctimony. It's how it works. The more bonuses, the better the firms are doing. They don't pay people bonuses who aren't making money, that's how they drive them out quickly. More bonuses are good, not bad.