Bank Compensation, Part 1

bailoutsleuth.com is posting a series of “where is our money going” articles that describe the dirty details of the taxpayer-funded $700 billion bailout (really, $850 billion). Here’s part one:

Members of Congress are starting to question whether banks that got billions in government bailout money will use some of it to pay year-end bonuses to executives and other employees.

BailoutSleuth decided to take a look at compensation levels for the top officers at those banks, to see how much they were paid in recent years and whether the companies have made any adjustments in response to plunging profits or eroding asset values.

We’ll start with four banks that got $25 billion each by selling preferred stock and warrants to the Treasury Department. The companies on that list are Citigroup Inc., Wells Fargo & Co., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp.

Although Bank of America got $15 billion in direct government investment, it is in the process of buying Merrill Lynch Inc., which received an additional $10 billion…

Be sure to read the rest of their article, as it’s pretty detailed and twisted. If you haven’t contacted everyone you know to vote against those who voted for the bailout, NOW IS THE TIME!