Crisis, but not for Wall Street millionaires

This cartoon video from the USA is called Goldman Sachs to Jobless Jack.

By Tom Eley in the USA:

Record pay for Wall Street executives in 2010

3 February 2011

While the great majority of the American population is suffering from the consequences of mass unemployment, pay-cutting, record foreclosures, and ruthless cuts to all forms of social spending, America’s corporate elite are flush with record pay and profits.

According to a new study by the Wall Street Journal, total compensation handed out to employees at publicly traded Wall Street banks hit a record $135 billion in 2010, an increase of 5.7 percent over the combined payout in 2009.

The $135 billion in “compensation” given to the lords and ladies of Wall Street is $10 billion more than the combined budget deficit of $125 billion facing 44 states and the District of Columbia for fiscal year 2012—budget deficits that will be used to cut funding for schools, food stamps for the hungry, health care for the poor and working class, and unemployment compensation for the jobless.

One firm, Bank of America, paid out $35.1 billion in compensation alone. The figure is equivalent to the combined budget deficits of California and Illinois, which are together home to 50 million people.

A state government oversight board has seized control of the finances of one of New York’s largest counties: here.

Global food prices surged to a record high in January, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) warned on Thursday: here.

According to a recent survey, the average salaries of the members of the boards of the 30 biggest German companies rose by 18 percent in 2010: here.