Wall Street Bonuses Rose 17% in 2009

Today, New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli announced that Wall Street paid out $20.3 billion of bonuses in 2009, up 17% from 2008. Bonuses at Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley rose by 31%.

Given the lingering problems in the economy and high unemployment, one wonders what these executives could have done to merit these awards. Let's not forget that these are the same banks that had to be bailed out with taxpayer money in order to avoid collapsing.

What will it take for them to realize that all they are doing is decreasing investor confidence and making the situation worse? How much more will we tolerate before we take action?

Corporations are neither too big to fail nor too big to take on. As long as we stay unified and keep pushing Congress for greater shareowner rights, we can make sure that boards act in our best interests and executive compensation is properly tied to performance.