AN OBVIOUS DISCONNECT

The MOTU on Wall Street are going to have a marvelous year while Americans are facing the worst recession sinvce 1900. I think it is well past time we examine the social dysfunction that lead to this situation.

Wall Street Firms Dishing Out Record Pay
By Joseph Woelfel

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Employees at major U.S. banks and securities firms will receive about $140 billion in total compensation and benefits this year, a Wall Street Journal analysis has found.

The Journal reports workers at 23 top investment banks, hedge funds, asset managers and stock and commodities exchanges could expect to earn more than 20% from last year's $117 billion, while pay also will top the $130 billion in 2007, the peak year.

THIS is what happens in the "Real Economy":

Still on the Job, but Making Only Half as Much
By LOUIS UCHITELLE
Published: October 13, 2009
NY Times

But now pay cuts, sometimes the result of downgrades in rank or shortened workweeks, are occurring more frequently than at any time since the Great Depression.

...total weekly pay for production workers, pilots among them, representing 80 percent of the work force. That index has fallen for nine consecutive months, an unprecedented string over the 44 years the bureau has calculated weekly pay, capturing the large number of people out of work, those working fewer hours and those whose wages have been cut. The old record was a two-month decline, during the 1981-1982 recession.