‘Bonus rage’ is surely a response to our lack of control over our destiny as well as the fallout from our reduced circumstances. Many, if they get to keep their jobs, expect to be working for the rest of their lives. The others, well…those layoffs look permanent. Who will save us from this mess?
Certainly there is too much greed for our own good. But add to that the hubris about the quality of the talent who expect the bonus and brought about the demise of our financial system and you have pure theater, not to mention injustice on a grand scale.
Not to bonus the talent, according to AIG’s CEO, might mean they leave for another firm which is more generous.
Huh? How can you be more generous than letting them keep their jobs? The injustice is giving them a bonus to try and do better next time.
Traders (derivatives, pork bellies, stocks) are mechanics with good tools. They work for the right organization, have surplus capital resources behind them, quality software systems, and quantitative models (some lucky) at their disposal. And, it might be said, very lax supervision. Add a solid I.Q., hard work, a focused dedication to getting personally rich, and you may produce a few good players.
Here’s the rub about bonuses. What management employs them to engage in is incomprehensible to many who pay them. The bonus issue arises when all the stars are perfectly aligned (as they may be several times each work day) and such activities produce expected profits.
By most outsider accounts these profits would be considered monumental. The morality of it is another dimension.
We know profits are manufactured when credit entries from the use of other people’s money appear on the organization’s books as proof. These trading activities occur many times in comparable offices around the world as money rides the global time zones 24 hours a day.
This good fortune is thus considered worthy of being shared with “the talent” who produced it in the form of a bonus for a job well done.
No profit. No bonus. Now that’s justice. What’s so difficult about that?
Copyright 2009 William M. MacKay
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