At the end of the year, the very few and fortunate among us receive holiday bonuses as a mark of a job well done and an acknowledgment that an employee means something special to the company. Then there is Wall Street. The Street has given out hundreds of billions in bonuses in the last few years, but in 2008 they will be trimmed by quite a bit, considering the mess that the top executives greed has helped cause. Current fiscal crisis and looming economic depression aside, some people's egos and not letting any kind of humility get in the way of the big fat bonus check they think they deserve.
From The Wall Street Journal:
Merrill Lynch & Co. chief John Thain has suggested to directors that he get a 2008 bonus of as much as $10 million, but the battered securities firm's compensation committee is resisting his request, according to people familiar with the situation.
The committee and full board are scheduled to meet Monday to hear Mr. Thain's formal bonus recommendations for himself and other senior executives of the New York company. No decision has been reached, and it isn't known what Mr. Thain will recommend, but the compensation committee is leaning toward denying the executives bonuses for this year, these people said.
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