The Wall Street Journal decided to give Merrill Lynch, now part of Bank of America (BAC) a hard time for paying some of its investment bankers and traders more than $10 million each last year.
What is not terribly prominent in the article is that the people who were paid the big money probably earned it. Merrill may have lost tens of billions of dollars throughout 2008, but the figures would have been worse if some of its profitable divisions had not made large contributions.
It’s just pay-for-performance. Beating up the successful bankers in the media is a waste of newsprint.
Douglas A. McIntyre
