The Obama administration famously put restructions on executive pay, capping at US$500k for institutions receiving TARP money. Naturally, there has been some shameless howling from the Masters of the Universe. Who? You know, the geniuses who were instrumental in birthing this finance mess.
There has been some wagging of tongues and tut tutting in regard to the problems of living on $500k per year on the upper East Side of Manhattan. Mathematically, this may in fact be true. But I would offer that this is the market supplying pushback towards equilibrium. If the swanky life in Manhattan is not feasible on the meager sum of $500k, then the banks need to relocate. Banks should consider the kind of lifestyle an executive could have in Manhattan, Kansas, or Little Rock on $500k. Or York, NE. We got yer swank right here!
I love this description of financiers by David Gillen at the NYT-
Banking executives and recruiters say talented financiers — the driven, hyper-numerate, slightly ruthless ones with a preternatural knack for making money in bull markets and bear — are always in high demand. NY Times, Feb 21, 2009.
It sounds to me like the finance industry needs a therapeutic brain drain or a cerebral colonic.
Lamentations on Chemistry 
My general impression is that these talented individuals are narcissistic sociopaths (with a dash of sexual deviancy thrown in). They con money out of pension funds by saying
“Look, I’ve got a 4.0 from Yale and a Havard MBA. YOU MUST TRUST ME, I AM TRUSTWORTHY…keep looking at my watch, yes yes…you’re falling into a deep sleep”
I’ts amazing the gen pub still wallows in this crap.
Look, the last ten years of market gains have been wiped out, so these bozos do not, collectively, know what they’re doing. The whole affair is nothing more than a Madoff style ponzi scheme where they skim a little off each transaction. They’ve created a whole false doctrine of ‘markets correct’ and ‘markets do this or that based on whoosa whatsa tech analysis’. It’s all a smokescreen to get to the food pellet dispensed by your money!
These people are NOT masters of the universe. They are hamsters pulling on a string!
If you want to see a really scary stat-
http://www.businessinsider.com/shiller-house-prices-still-way-too-high-2009-2
Oh crap, if they can’t live on the UES with $500K how am I supposed to live on my measly pittance? Woe is me, woe is me!
“They’ve created a whole false doctrine of ‘markets correct’ and ‘markets do this or that based on whoosa whatsa tech analysis’.”
I have witnessed this kind of thing with a few MBA’s that I know. In fact, a few years ago one of the things a hatchet man accused me of before he lopped off my head in a “lateral shift” was that I did not speak like any sales manager he ever heard. I did not deal in the customary euphamisms and paradigms and as such, I was suspect.
Today, I am still working in my field and the hatchet man is gone. The rat bast*rd is pounding the pavement looking for work.
It is a sad day when statistics tell the truth,
http://econ.lse.ac.uk/staff/dquah/g/2008.11-Global_Savings_Glut/Fig-US_bilateral_trade_balance.gif nUS trade balance, 1981-2008.
US trade deficit, 1980-2007
We enjoy opportunities not suffer problems.