Top Financial Firms Make Huge Money Under Socialist President

In case you were worried that Obama de Socialiste is killing business, think again.

Pay on Wall Street is on pace to break a record high for a second consecutive year, according to a study conducted by The Wall Street Journal.

Compensation on Wall Street is on pace to break a record high for a second consecutive year, as more than three dozen top banks and securities firms will pay $144 billion in salary and benefits. Elizabeth Rappaport, Bob O'Brien and Neal Lipschutz discuss. Also, Guggenheim Partners's Scott Minerd discusses why he thinks that despite record highs, gold can be expected to rise even higher.

About three dozen of the top publicly held securities and investment-services firms—which include banks, investment banks, hedge funds, money-management firms and securities exchanges—are set to pay $144 billion in compensation and benefits this year, a 4% increase from the $139 billion paid out in 2009, according to the survey. Compensation was expected to rise at 26 of the 35 firms. 

The data showed that revenue was expected to rise at 29 of the 35 firms surveyed, but at a slower pace than pay. Wall Street revenue is expected to rise 3%, to $448 billion from $433 billion, despite a slowdown in some.

(WSJ)

Which is why some progressives are deeply moody over the President, and most conservatives are absolutely delusional over the President, and why we remain quite content with the Goldilocks president. As much as people like to demonize entities--Ivy League graduates, lawyers, Mark Zuckerber, corporations, bankers, Wall Street, Chinese, you name it, we still think it's a good thing when our financial sector is beginning to function according to normative levels of greed and ingenuity.