Bonus Question(able)

I'm a couple of days late on this, but I've been busy. Apparently, I should have been busy losing other people's money.

Wall Street firms slashed cash bonuses for New York City employees by 44 percent in 2008, as they reeled from record losses in the securities industry, New York State’s comptroller said in a report issued on Wednesday.

Bonuses fell to $18.4 billion from $32.9 billion in 2007, the largest decline ever and the biggest percentage drop in more than 30 years, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said. The size of the bonus pool is the sixth-largest on record, he said.

So the people who helped us lose a significant chunk of our national wealth punished themselves by rewarding themselves with a measly $18 billion. I would like to second Joe Biden:

"I'd like to throw these guys in the brig," Biden said in an interview with CNBC.