Destroyed an economy recently? Have a bonus!

Despite the US Government handing out $125 Billion to struggling financial institutions across America, employees within these organizations are still being awarded hefty bonuses.

Companies such as the now bankrupt Lehman Brothers managed to shrewdly pocket millions of dollars ($20 million, in Lehman Brothers’ case) specifically to hand out as 2008 bonuses to their New York employees – keeping this money separate from bankruptcy filings in a perfectly legal way ensured the share holders and investors couldn’t get their destitute paws on any of it, and Lehman Brothers can still take a bite out of the Bail Out cash.

Now I’m sure it’s not just me, but something seems inherently wrong with this. Okay, so $20 million is a third less than Lehman Brothers’ bonus allocations last year.

But it really seems like a lot for a company that is totally bankrupt and desperately funneling state money into its system to prop the entire company up.

The excuse coming from both Lehman Brothers and the apparently floundering Goldman Sachs ($16 million in bonuses for those guys) is that dishing out bonuses of over $100,000 to each of their top employees will let the most brilliant minds in the business know how much they’re valued, and encourage them to stick around.

Given the state of the US economy, I’m not so sure keeping the guys largely responsible for the meltdown around is a great idea.

by Alex Caton