[jaws]

...in Christmas bonuses to employees:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'J')ust to see the scale of things here, let us consult the US Dept of Commerce’s quarterly reports on business profits and see how long it would have taken Main St. and Commercial Rd. to make the same $35 billion as did Wall St. and Canary Wharf’s favourite sons and daughters.

$35 billion – even in today’s high-priced world – is no trivial sum.

In fact, it is roughly equal to 15 months' worth of combined profits at ALL of the US wholesale trade business. It represents close to a whole year of the American mining industry's after-tax income. It matches 8 months' earnings made by both the computers & electronics industry and by the nation’s retailers.

It would take almost six months for the entire US chemical industry to ring up the same number of dollars and – perhaps most tellingly of all – even at $60 and north for a barrel of crude and after a three-year doubling per tonne of anthracite, it is comparable to 35% of the annual take of every one of those supposedly villainous price-gougers who comprise Big Oil & Coal.

[shakespear1]

It looks like there is a crowd that is enjoying life and for SURE they will not be the ones that lobby for Energy Conservation measures

They are enjoying that Energy !!!

[Aqua]

http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0, ... 97,00.html

Same thing on the other side of the pond with a record £7.5 billion paid out on city of London bonuses, at least the FTSE went up 16% last year. And my how this crowd are enjoying themselves with plastic surgery and upgrading to 6 million pound homes. Meantime back in reality land the number of industrial actions in Britain hasn’t been as high in years due to paltry pay increases and pension schemes going down the tubes faster than a dose of clap around a monastery.

[Kingcoal]

I think that Greenspan's the codling of the financial sector is what created all this. Greenspan's greatest legacy is his single minded pursuit of equity market stability and appreciation. This has created a class of workers who are paid fantastic sums for relatively little productivity. Damn I should have been a banker.

[cube]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jaws', '.')..Why don't the common people rise up and slay them?

[TommyJefferson]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jaws', 'W')hy don't the common people rise up and slay them?

[Schweinshaxe]

I just heard on Motley Fool Radio in an interview with John Bogle on his book "The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism" that the compensation for CEO:s (or was it the top brass together?), has increased from about 40 times more than the average worker in 1980, to over 400 times in 2005.

He said this was because the ownership is in the hands of a few mutual funds.

That makes sense. Why would you complain as an "owner" when CEO:s grab more and more money from the corporations when you can do exactly the same thing running a mutual fund? The losers are the poor assholes who invested their money in the mutual funds anyway...

[jaws]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Kingcoal', 'I') think that Greenspan's the codling of the financial sector is what created all this. Greenspan's greatest legacy is his single minded pursuit of equity market stability and appreciation. This has created a class of workers who are paid fantastic sums for relatively little productivity. Damn I should have been a banker.