Everyone on Wall Street is fixated on The Number.
The
bank bonus season, that annual rite of big money and bigger egos,
begins in earnest this week, and it looks as if it will be one of the
largest and most controversial blowouts the industry has ever seen.
Bank
executives are grappling with a question that exasperates, even
infuriates, many recession-weary Americans: Just how big should their
paydays be? Despite calls for restraint from Washington and a chafed
public, resurgent banks are preparing to pay out bonuses that rival
those of the boom years. The haul, in cash and stock, will run into
many billions of dollars.
Industry executives acknowledge that
the numbers being tossed around — six-, seven- and even eight-figure
sums for some chief executives and top producers — will probably stun
the many Americans still hurting from …