"TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN"

That's basically what the MOTU did during the housing boom and there's nothing we can do now to get that money back. The NYT has a series about this disaster and here's part of the latest intsallment.

On Wall Street, Bonuses, Not Profits, Were Real
By LOUISE STORY
Published: December 17, 2008
New York Times

For Dow Kim, 2006 was a very good year. While his salary at Merrill Lynch was $350,000, his total compensation was 100 times that — $35 million.

The difference between the two amounts was his bonus, a rich reward for the robust earnings made by the traders he oversaw in Merrill’s mortgage business.

On Wall Street, the first goal was to make “a buck” — a million dollars. More than 100 people in Merrill’s bond unit alone broke the million-dollar mark in 2006. Goldman Sachs paid more than $20 million apiece to more than 50 people that year, according to a person familiar with the matter. Goldman declined to comment.