Thus sayeth Bloomberg:
For more than a generation, Wall Street has been able to recruit the world’s best and brightest mostly by promising them more money than they can possibly make elsewhere. Indeed it is the rare Wall Street employee, especially among those just starting out, who admit to being motivated by anything other than the fat paychecks they have been promised. But when that promise can no longer be kept, or when paychecks are smaller than expected, the best and the brightest begin voting with their feet.
Where do they go? Well if the theorem is true that they follow the money, then there should be a stampede back into professions such as the media industry, where top executives quietly hauled down a fortune in 2011 compensation. For instance, Les Moonves, the CEO of CBS Corp. (CBS), was paid $69.9 million in 2011. David Zaslav of Discovery Communications Inc. (DISCA) received $52.4 million, while Philippe Dauman at Viacom Inc. (VIA) was paid $43 million. Walt Disney Co. (DIS)’s Robert Iger got $31 million. Jeff Bewkes, at Time Warner Inc. (TWX), was paid $26 million in 2011.
Even the top executives at Comcast Corp. (CMCSA), Brian Roberts and Steve Burke, received compensation of $27 million and $24 million, respectively, despite their pay being cut 13 percent and 32 percent, respectively, from the previous year. (It’s worth noting that Comcast patriarch Ralph Roberts, now 92 years old and still a regular in the executive offices at the company, once again took $1 in compensation for 2011.)
Six media executives wound up in the top 15 of the Associated Press’s list of highest-paid executives released last week; not a single banker joined them.
The great unbathed should have been #occupying 30 Rock and 620 Eighth Avenue (snicker) instead of Wall Street. But then they probably wouldn’t have gotten the favorable coverage.
Here is a strange thing about this post, McG. For some reason I saw it in Google Reader hours ago before it showed up on the main page.
Spooky.
I actually did. I’m not kidding.
I wanted not to bump the Memorial Day post until later so I rescheduled mine.
I can be more on topic.
Take a look at bank stocks since 2007-8 compared to any broader index. They’re hurting. Low interest rates (Helicopter Ben) aren’t so good for them.
Seriously, the banksters aren’t doing as well as the average company let alone ruling the planet.
Ah. You’re a good fellow, McG.
There’s a rather unbeatable argument that relates to this, btw.
Why are guys like the zerohedge people and others not using their keen insight to murder everyone else in the market? Why don’t they prove their point once and for all and just destroy alpha year in and year out?
If it’s as simple as we hear, then why are they writing blogs for advertising dollars just like their precursors in the newsletter industry? They should just slaughter the market. Time and time again.
That’s gonna be my newsletter. A ranking of other newsletters. Here’s a spoiler: they’re just as full of shit as everyone else.
You want to make money you learn a shit ton about a very narrow subject like how many container ships are leaving specific Asian ports on any given day or how many oranges might come out of Florida next week or the likelihood that Ford is going to sell a lot of cars next quarter.
That takes work though. If you’re wrong, you lose your job. Why aren’t these amazing oracles giving us these specific forecasts?
I write long comments now. I guess that’s my thing.
That’s a rather silly premise, really. Just because an industry has extremely top-heavy compensation doesn’t mean it will necessarily be attractive to people who are money-driven in their career choices.
The thing about Wall Street versus media, from having worked in both sectors, is that Wall Street’s rank-and-file, traders on a desk, an analyst, a portfolio manager, can do much, much better than media’s rank-and-file.
Let me put this more succintly: At most shops, through 2008, traders and salesmen were in their seats at guarantees of $1 million or more annually. If you put together a 10-15 year run at a place like Merrill, Morgan Stanley, Lehman, Goldman or Bear, where 40%-50% of comp was in stock, your stock appreciation alone made it almost mathematically impossible to be anything less than worth $10 million, even after the collapse (and, perhaps, a divorce or two and an effective 50% total tax rate.)
In media, the people doing best were those CEOs you mentioned. Everyone else is happy to get anywhere near $250k. Trust me on this as a vet of News Corp and Time Warner.
As is not caring how money works.
I heart 1 percenters.
Abe, that’s a very good point, particularly considering Roddy’s subsequent comment. From the Bloomberg excerpt above:
But as Roddy points out, the money they’re following isn’t 30 or 40 years up the road after they’ve put in their time and paid their dues — assuming they last that long AND manage somehow to win the rat race to the top. That’s a careerist mindset that has been taking a beating for decades; in a growing and dynamic economy no one with any sense is going to choose to slog away in the trenches in hopes of making big bucks later if they have the opportunity and know-how to make big bucks now.
It’s also worth pointing out that Bloomberg itself is a media company — it’s focused on the market, but it’s still a media company.
…but the #Occupados weren’t bitching about the rank and file. Their ire was directed at CEOs.
Everyone knows the Banks are about money. What everyone doesn’t know is this administration is abot money.
Andrew Ferguson in Time magazine (link nabbed at Ricochet) : Bubble on the Potomac
In a free America, Washington, D.C. and Pierre, S.D. would be about the same size.
In a free America, Washington, D.C. and Pierre, S.D. would be about the same size.
August 24, 2014 will be the 200th anniversary of the Sack of Washington. I’ve already started sending requests to our cousins across the pond asking if they’d be willing to do a re-enactment.
They’re going to need a bigger sack.
We can readily imagine our modern day
DollieMichelle valorously saving Barry’s prized photographic portraits of himself and leaving stupid old whitey George Washington behind.Did they promise more money? Or did they promise a good pay – and then a lot of benefits? You know – free parking, free shuttle on a company car, free coffee and whatever in the morning, free dry cleaning, your secretary – sorry – administrative assistant would handle a lot of calls and errands for you, free lunch, free transit passes – all of those things.
Because that is worth a lot.