Bankers Lose to Congressmen Among Americans Furious Over Pay – Bloomberg.com Updated:New York, Dec 10 03:53London, Dec 10 08:53Tokyo, Dec 10 17:53 SYMBOL LOOKUP FEEDBACKHOMENEWSEXCLUSIVEWORLDWIDEREGIONSMARKETSINDUSTRIESECONOMYPOLITICSLAWENVIRONMENTSCIENCEOPINIONSPENDSPORTSARTS AND CULTUREEDITORS’ VIDEO PICKSBLOOMBERG MARKETS MAGAZINESPECIAL REPORTMARKET DATASTOCKSRATES & BONDSCURRENCIESMUTUAL FUNDSETFsCOMMODITIESECONOMIC CALENDARPERSONAL FINANCEJANE BRYANT QUINNJOHN DORFMANPORTFOLIO TRACKERCALCULATORSFINANCIAL GLOSSARYTV and RADIOBLOOMBERG TELEVISIONBLOOMBERG TELEVISION SYNDICATED REPORTSBLOOMBERG RADIOBLOOMBERG PODCASTSBLOOMBERG SHOWSCEO SPOTLIGHTCFO INSIGHTPORTFOLIO MATTERSMOBILEBUSINESSWEEKBUSINESS EXCHANGEBloomberg InnovatorsTechnologyCurrenciesForex Trading VideosETFsCEOCommoditiesExclusiveWorldwideRegionsMarketsIndustriesEconomyPoliticsLawEnvironmentScienceOpinionSpendSportsArts and CultureEditors’ Video PicksBloomberg Markets MagazineSpecial ReportRESOURCES Bloomberg TV Bloomberg Radio Bloomberg PodcastsBloomberg Press More News • Americans Want Government to Spend for Jobs, Send Bill to Rich, Poll Shows • Obama’s Nobel Prize Speech to Reflect His Pursuit of Peace in Time of War • Congress Agrees to Subpoena Salahis on How They Crashed White House Event Bankers Lose to Congressmen Among Americans Furious Over Pay Share Business ExchangeTwitterFacebook| Email | Print |A A A By Alison Fitzgerald Dec. 10 (Bloomberg) — Wall Street firms are recovering.Their standing with the American public isn’t. Executives at financial firms, coming off two years offailures, bailouts and writedowns, are less popular thanCongress, lawyers and insurance companies. As they prepare togive out year-end bonuses, they risk another wave of publicfury, according to a Bloomberg National Poll. Two-thirds of Americans say they have an unfavorable viewof financial executives. More than half say big financialcompanies are only out to enrich themselves and also say theyshouldn’t have received government aid. And most Americans don’twant to see bankers collecting fat checks at the end of the yearif their companies were bailed out by taxpayers. “The fact that they’re even in existence should be bonusenough,” says Cassie Swihart, a 58-year-old retired registerednurse from Warsaw, Indiana, who responded to the poll of 1,000U.S. adults, conducted Dec. 3-7 by Selzer & Co., a Des Moines,Iowa-based firm. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.1percentage points. Banks that got taxpayer help through the Troubled AssetRelief Program — the $700 billion financial rescue plan passedby Congress last year — shouldn’t pay any bonuses, according to75 percent of those polled. Of those, 51 percent say even the banks that have paid thegovernment back shouldn’t be rewarding their employees so soon. “Why would you want to give somebody a bonus who put usinto this situation?” said respondent Elijah Brown, 42, anunemployed union contractor from California. Bailouts Bad Idea Brown is also among the 64 percent of people who saidbailing out banks was a bad idea. To avoid future rescues, justover half of respondents said banks should be subject tostricter regulation. A minority, 31 percent, would allowtroubled banks to fail and an even smaller number, 10 percent,favor breaking up big banks. President Barack Obama has chastised financial companiesfor “bloated bonuses.” He has proposed an overhaul offinancial rules that avoids breaking up large, healthy companiesor that throws big banks in financial trouble into bankruptcy. Amajority of respondents say Obama strikes about the rightbalance, coming off as neither pro- or anti-business. The public opposition to Wall Street firms paying bonusesshows the widening disconnect between executives such as GoldmanSachs Group Inc.’s Lloyd Blankfein, who argue they need to paygenerously to retain good employees, and the broader public thatblames big banks for an economic collapse and doubling of theunemployment rate in two years. Job Losses The U.S. economy fell into its deepest recession since theGreat Depression in December 2007. More than 7 million jobs havedisappeared. Some economists, including Federal Reserve ChairmanBen S. Bernanke, say the recession has likely ended.Unemployment, at 10 percent in November, has been slow torecover. Many large banks have roared back to profitability on theleading edge of the recovery. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley andJPMorgan Chase & Co.’s investment banking unit will hand out acombined $29.7 billion in bonuses, according to analysts’estimates. That’s a record, beating out the $26.8 billion in2007 and up 60 percent from last year when all three tookbillions in support from the Treasury to weather the financialmeltdown. Compensation Set Aside Goldman alone set aside $16.7 billion for compensation andbenefits in the first nine months of 2009, enough to pay eachworker $527,192. Goldman has paid back $10 billion in TARP moneywith interest. “If you cut bonuses it will just let people go elsewhere.It will be a talent drain from the U.S.,” said Garson Li, 27, aHouston-based consultant at Deloitte who was among the 23percent of poll respondents who approved of banks’ payingbonuses if they took government aid. Banks are rushing to pay back the Treasury to get out fromunder compensation limits that come with accepting taxpayerlargesse. Bank of America Corp. said last week it will repay the$45 billion it borrowed as it tries to recruit a new chiefexecutive to replace the outgoing Ken Lewis. Goldman’s bonuses, likely to be paid in January, will comeas Congress tries to complete an overhaul of financialregulations aimed at cutting the risk-taking that drove outsizeprofits and triggered huge bonuses, and ultimately led to thefinancial crisis and recession. ‘Little Control’ Devin O’Leary, 41, a film critic from Albuquerque, NewMexico, welcomed tougher oversight. “They’ve had little controlup to now and if you give a big corporation little control,they’re going to do everything they can get away with.” Karen Thomas, 65, who runs a land-surveying business withher husband in Greeley, Colorado, said the government should letteetering banks fail, a view shared by 31 percent of pollrespondents. “That’s our capitalist system,” she said. “No one’sgoing to bail us out and I wouldn’t even ask for it.” To see the methodology and exact wording of the pollquestions, click on the attachment tab at the top of the story. To contact the reporters on this story:Alison Fitzgerald in Washington at afitzgerald2@bloomberg.net. Last Updated: December 9, 2009 18:00 EST