Executive bonuses

Title: How Washington's Bailout Will Boost Wall Street Bonuses
Source: Time
Date: October 27, 2008

From the article:

Uncle Sam has a new name on Wall Street — Sugar Daddy. Bonuses for investment bankers and traders are projected to fall by 40% this year. But analysts, compensation consultants and recruiters say the drop would be much more severe, perhaps as much as 70%, had it not been for the government's efforts to prop up the financial firms. "Year-end pay on Wall Street will be higher than it would have been had it not been for the government and mergers," says Alan Johnson, a leading compensation consultant. "You would expect it to be down much more."

Johnson predicts the average managing director at an investment bank, a title typically earned around eight years on the job, will receive a bonus of $625,000. That's down from nearly $1.1 million last year, but it is still 15 times the income of the average American household. Top bankers could receive as much as $1 million. Even a bond trader just out of business school could see his or her bank account enriched by as much as $170,000 this Christmas. "The firms have had an extremely difficult year," says Joan Zimmerman, a Wall Street career coach. "But they can't afford to lose talent either."

Title: Widening Gap between Rich and Poor: US cities now compare to African cities
Source: TPM
Date: October 23, 2008

From the article:

Another "Banana Republican" sign: According to a new UN report, as reported in The Guardian, US cities such as New York, Atlanta, New Orleans, Washington, and Miami, now rank among the world's greatest - in terms of disparity of income. We knew this gap was growing in the US. But did we know that many of our largest cities now compare to cities in Africa in terms of disparities between rich and poor? Did we realize that race was a significant factor in these disparities?

See also: Wealth gap creating a social time bomb

Zero corporate taxes

Title: Study says most corporations pay no U.S. income taxes
Source: Reuters
Date: August 12, 2008

From the article:

Most U.S. and foreign corporations doing business in the United States avoid paying any federal income taxes, despite trillions of dollars worth of sales, a government study released on Tuesday said.

Title: 'Your company is bankrupt, you keep $480m. Is that fair?'
Source: Guardian
Date: 10/7/2008

From the article:

The chairman of the committee held up a chart suggesting that Fuld's personal remuneration totalled $480m (£276m) over eight years, including payouts of $91m in 2001 and $89m in 2005.

"Your company is now bankrupt and our country is in a state of crisis," said Waxman, a liberal from California. "You get to keep $480m. I have a very basic question: Is that fair?"

Title: Their companies went belly-up, but they walked away with a fortune
Source: MSNBC
Date: 10/1/2008

From the article:

Even as some of the nation’s biggest financial firms were hitting the skids, the CEOs who ran these companies were cashing in.

Here’s a list of chief executives who oversaw monumental failures that led the nation’s financial system to the edge but were still able to walk away with big payouts.