THE MOTU DON'T GET IT

I don't know how much this woman knows about the elite on Wall Street but if she's even half right, we need to make sure the MOTU have a serious attitude adjustment.

Insight: The masters lost our trust
By Aline van Duyn
FINANCIAL TIMES
Published: October 30 2008 17:43
Last updated: October 30 2008 17:43

The general public’s confidence in Wall Street is worse than ever, yet Wall Street still does not understand how it is perceived.

”Our industry’s image is at an all-time low,” said Blythe Masters, a senior executive at JP Morgan Chase who has played an important role in the development of credit derivatives in the last decade. Speaking at a conference this week, she said some on Wall Street would ”bristle” at the thought of taking blame for the current crisis, but that doing so was essential. She is absolutely right.

The focus now has become the nine US banks which are receiving $125bn of public money. They have spent or reserved $108bn for employee pay and bonuses in the first nine months of 2008, nearly the same as last year. ... For Wall Street to really restore the confidence, it needs to understand why its pay make others not just bristle, but angry. Getting paid as much as last year looks really bad, it is as simple as that.