They refuse to get it and they refuse to care that they caused the global recession. The US bonus money reserves have been shockingly high so far for the year as well, not that Wall Street cares either. These spongers are living quite well and have been for years even when they were generating all of the paper money that was wiped off the books. Whatever they do they win. Great work, when you can get it and you have no conscience for screwing the world. The only part that's even more annoying is to see politicians who make the rules do absolutely nothing to change the system.
The TUC general secretary, Brendan Barber, said: "Given the havoc that the City has wreaked on our economy, pegging back bonuses to a mere £7bn a year falls short of the value for money taxpayers should expect after bailing out the banks."Wow, scaling back to 2004 bonuses. How will they ever survive?
In 2008, bonuses suffered their first fall in five years as the early months of the credit crunch took their toll – but the fall was small, to £13.7bn from £14.1bn in 2007, after a 30% rise from 2006.
The low point in recent years was £5.2bn in 2003, as the financial sector recovered from the dotcom bust in the stockmarket. This year's payout will be broadly similar to that of 2004, when financial markets were in good shape.
