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The wolves of Wall Street by s. jayasankaran
Saturday, 7 May 2016
MARISSA Mayer is the chief executive of Yahoo whose stock lost about a third of its value last year.
The reason: the firm went from making US$7.5bil in 2014 to losing US$4.4bil in 2015. Yet, according to the Huffington Post, Ms Mayer raked in US$36mil in compensation.
Here’s the catch: even if Yahoo’s board had tried to fire her, the firm would have had to pay her US$54.9mil in severance payments because her contract said so.
In short, Ms Mayer couldn’t lose.
Actually, most of Wall Street couldn’t lose. In 2015, Street executives earned more in bonuses than the total earnings of all the full-time minimum wage workers in the United States combined, over US$37bil.
That, to put it mildly, is quite a haul.
Somali’s pirates whistled admiringly: the haul was over 50 times their country’s gross domestic product.
It was downright shameful and every American longed either to work there or have their children be employed there and so scrimped and saved to put them through business school.
The world had evolved from being flat to round to crooked and Wall Street epitomised all that was good about greed. It had attracted the best brains from all over the world who’d concentrated their formidable brainpower on deriving mathematical models of securitised derivatives of such fantastic complexity that the banks fell over them, buying and selling them at ever increasing prices. That led to the 2008 financial crisis during which time Wall Street executives hauled off the sixth highest payout on record.
The Wall Streeters were trim, athletic people with flinty eyes who wore smart, well-cut suits with braces. They were booted with crisp, shiny wing tipped shoes and had offices with clean desks and cluttered desk drawers.
They didn’t rise to the occasion but preferred to slide over to it and they boasted of photographic memories which largely had no film.
They were health conscious and generally favoured Perrier water because they were abstemious people who soberly followed the law and so did not drink and derive.
They confessed to a great love for Tom Jones and could generally be heard humming “The Green, Green Grass of Home” but weren’t worried about this symptom because their doctors had assured then that “It’s Not Unusual.”
All they asked for was a chance to come up with fantastic derivatives to prove that money could buy them happiness. But they acknowledged bitterly to everyone who might listen that money didn’t buy them happiness but conceded that it was a great way to ensure that the kids stayed in touch.
But the mess they left behind in 2008 proved that nothing is foolproof to the talented fool. Still, it had cost American savers over three trillion dollars over seven years of near-zero interest rates.
At the time, sneering Asian economies pointed to US profligacy but Europe and Japan had since followed suit. Easy money was addictive and now almost all emerging economies dreaded rising US interest rates lest it sent their currencies into turmoil.
Barack Obama felt relieved that he would be leaving office soon. Whether any of his likely successors had any idea about handling the US economy was equally unclear. Most seemed as confused as a baby in a topless bar.
No one seemed worried though. US quantitative easing policies were ensuring that Wall Street executives were still making a killing at the expense of the American saver. Now there was hardly anything left in the kitty except when the household cat swallowed a nickel.
Americans without children on Wall Street longed to punch the executives on the nose. President Obama, however, counselled caution.
Instead he suggested that everyone should make money the hard way like Malcolm Forbes did.
“Be nice to a relative just before he dies,” Mr Forbes had once advised.
The wolves of Wall Street
by s. jayasankaranMARISSA Mayer is the chief executive of Yahoo whose stock lost about a third of its value last year.
The reason: the firm went from making US$7.5bil in 2014 to losing US$4.4bil in 2015. Yet, according to the Huffington Post, Ms Mayer raked in US$36mil in compensation.
Here’s the catch: even if Yahoo’s board had tried to fire her, the firm would have had to pay her US$54.9mil in severance payments because her contract said so.
In short, Ms Mayer couldn’t lose.
Actually, most of Wall Street couldn’t lose. In 2015, Street executives earned more in bonuses than the total earnings of all the full-time minimum wage workers in the United States combined, over US$37bil.
That, to put it mildly, is quite a haul.
Somali’s pirates whistled admiringly: the haul was over 50 times their country’s gross domestic product.
It was downright shameful and every American longed either to work there or have their children be employed there and so scrimped and saved to put them through business school.
The world had evolved from being flat to round to crooked and Wall Street epitomised all that was good about greed. It had attracted the best brains from all over the world who’d concentrated their formidable brainpower on deriving mathematical models of securitised derivatives of such fantastic complexity that the banks fell over them, buying and selling them at ever increasing prices. That led to the 2008 financial crisis during which time Wall Street executives hauled off the sixth highest payout on record.
The Wall Streeters were trim, athletic people with flinty eyes who wore smart, well-cut suits with braces. They were booted with crisp, shiny wing tipped shoes and had offices with clean desks and cluttered desk drawers.
They didn’t rise to the occasion but preferred to slide over to it and they boasted of photographic memories which largely had no film.
They were health conscious and generally favoured Perrier water because they were abstemious people who soberly followed the law and so did not drink and derive.
They confessed to a great love for Tom Jones and could generally be heard humming “The Green, Green Grass of Home” but weren’t worried about this symptom because their doctors had assured then that “It’s Not Unusual.”
All they asked for was a chance to come up with fantastic derivatives to prove that money could buy them happiness. But they acknowledged bitterly to everyone who might listen that money didn’t buy them happiness but conceded that it was a great way to ensure that the kids stayed in touch.
But the mess they left behind in 2008 proved that nothing is foolproof to the talented fool. Still, it had cost American savers over three trillion dollars over seven years of near-zero interest rates.
At the time, sneering Asian economies pointed to US profligacy but Europe and Japan had since followed suit. Easy money was addictive and now almost all emerging economies dreaded rising US interest rates lest it sent their currencies into turmoil.
Barack Obama felt relieved that he would be leaving office soon. Whether any of his likely successors had any idea about handling the US economy was equally unclear. Most seemed as confused as a baby in a topless bar.
No one seemed worried though. US quantitative easing policies were ensuring that Wall Street executives were still making a killing at the expense of the American saver. Now there was hardly anything left in the kitty except when the household cat swallowed a nickel.
Americans without children on Wall Street longed to punch the executives on the nose. President Obama, however, counselled caution.
Instead he suggested that everyone should make money the hard way like Malcolm Forbes did.
“Be nice to a relative just before he dies,” Mr Forbes had once advised.
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