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Good News Everyone: Wall Street's Raking It In
By
David Colon
Published Oct 31, 2017
Modified Oct 31, 2017
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Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images
By
David Colon
Published Oct 31, 2017
Modified Oct 31, 2017
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With all of the arguments over that publicity stunt statue in the Financial District, we may have been losing sight of what's going on inside the Financial District. Which, according to a new report from the state comptroller's office, is the continued acquisition of billions of dollars of wealth. And just in time for a massive tax cut too!
State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli came out with a report this week which showed profits for companies in the securities industry totaled $12.3 billion in the first half of 2017, putting Wall Street 33 percent ahead of their 2016 pace that saw the industry rake in $9.3 billion in the first half of 2016. Congratulations guys, you earned it. I think? Does anyone actually know what investment bankers even do anymore?
Judging by DiNapoli's report, it would appear that the securities industry engages in a massive upward redistribution of wealth and then a hoarding of that wealth to get to those huge profits (2016 saw $17.3 billion in Wall Street profits, the first increase after three years of declines):
Profits were driven by cost cutting efforts and lower settlement costs stemming from the financial crisis.
In 2017, profits are being driven by higher revenues. Revenue from trading and underwriting rose 29 percent in the first half of the year on the strength of the financial markets, and revenue from wealth management was up 20 percent.
Not everything is rosy on Wall Street though (relatively I mean, let's keep some perspective here). The comptroller's report found that the average salary in the city's security industry is $375,300, which was lower than last year's record high of $404,800. On the other hand, DiNapoli is predicting higher bonuses this year, due to companies setting aside 4 percent more money compared to last year's mere pittance of $138,210 average bonus.
The comptroller made sure to point out though, the average Wall Street salary is still five times the average New York City salary of $74,800. Another fun thing to note is the average weekly earnings in New York State in September this year was $1,002.67. So it would only take you...137 weeks and change to make the same amount of bonus money as a Wall Street employee. Lol remember when Chipotle got downgraded as a stock because they paid their employees an average of $9.54/hour? Good times.
Tagged
capitalism more like crapitalism
wall street
David Colon
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