Time to break out the tiny violins! Sure, $1.6 million for the year is a lot of money—hell, $160,000 is a lot of money—but Wall Street Journal's Dennis Berman reveals that one financial firm "paymaster" (the guy who sets salaries and compensation at a firm) says of the amount given to a mid-career investment banker, "It's not a lot of money." Damn all those other investment banks for screwing over the economy and sending us spiraling into the financial crisis because only taking in $380,000 in after-tax money SUCKS! more ›

Mayor Bloomberg appointed a former Wall Street investment banker to head the troubled NYC Housing Authority. The NYCHA oversees over 177,000 apartments in 340 development in all five boroughs—the NY Times says this makes John Rhea, who used to work at Lehman Brothers and JPMorgan Chase, "in effect, the city’s biggest landlord." Bloomberg said, "John's experience makes him the perfect person to lead our efforts to create long-term financial stability at the Authority, and to ring in a new era of transparency and agency responsiveness to improving resident and community quality of life." However, some critics of the Bloomberg administration were upset with the pick: City Councilwoman Letitia James issued a statement questioning Rhea's lack of "experience in managing a low-income public housing authority of this size and scale...particularly at a time when private equity firms are purchasing under-performing housing developments, and converting them to luxury housing throughout the City" while Councilwoman Rosie Mendez told the Times, "All I see is a Wall Street person with an investment banking background and with no experience in housing management or development." more ›