[Afronaut]

Goldman Sachs, which is getting $10 billion from the bailout plan, is paying out $6.85 billion in bonuses, according to media reports. That's $210,000 per employee. And that's despite a 47% drop in its profit and 53% drop in its share price.

Morgan Stanley, which is also getting $10 billion from our government, is doling out $6.44 billion in bonuses or $138,700 per employee, even though its profits tumbled 41% and its shares are off by 69%. And even the failures at Lehman Brothers are collectively getting over $1 billion in bonuses.

NEW YORK, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Merrill Lynch & Co (MER.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Chief Executive John Thain may receive a $5.22 million award if Bank of America Corp (BAC.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) completes its purchase of the Wall Street bank and brokerage by Dec. 31 as planned.

The sum, known as a change-of-control award, reflects the cash value of stock-based awards that would vest automatically when the merger closes, Bank of America said. Merrill Chief Financial Officer Nelson Chai would get a $1.17 million award, the bank said.

Bank of America disclosed the awards this week in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing. It disclosed awards of slightly different sums in two separate filings last month.

[Scythian]

It looks like we won after all?

[Ciexyz]

These bank bonuses surely depressed the turnout of the Republican base. People were too demoralized to vote, feeling that no matter how they voted, the bigwigs would come out ahead and the little people would suffer.

[American in Israel]

The payoff’s for tanking the stock market to put zero in control are mounting up.

It is one thing to sell out America, but quite another level to do it with tax money.

We are so screwed...