BANKER ON HOW TO SOLVE DEBT CRISIS: The Public Needs To Work Harder For Less Money And 50% Fewer Benefits

BUSINESS INSIDER-An investment banker from BarCap recently told the Forum of Economic News that he's got the solution to bring "competitiveness" back to the European Union.

Cut benefits by half, and make everyone work harder.

The comments from Hans-Jörg Rudloff, the head of the Management Board of investment bank Barclays Capital, will obviously infuriate the public, who will remember that BarCap paid out bonuses that were so good this year that bankers gathered at a bar immediately after work for a champagne toast to everyone receiving "at least a £600,000 bonus."

Here's a transcript of what he said:

"Europe is carrying a social rucksack, which makes us uncompetitive in this world. We have provided living standards for our populations which are unheard of, which no one ever thought would be possible, for the last 50 years."

"People do not want to give up these living standards."

"Populations are not ready to voluntarily discipline themselves in more work, less rewards, and less security. And it's only [natural] that the population would react like this and here, its a question of democratic leadership and a question of whether indeed we are able to reinvigorate ourselves and to state public ally in this world that that we want to be competitive."

This is what Rudloff says the EU has to do:

• Half of the social benefits have to go 
• People have to work more, longer hours, longer years.
• Otherwise, it is impossible to continue to fund the present system of today. 
• Promote communication and the free movement of people and the immigration from all European countries will push us to a much strong union.

Watch a video of his speech by clicking here

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Want a Big Raise? Get a Wall St. Job

by Floyd Norris

New York Times

WALL Street incomes are surging back.

Multimedia

Graphic

Wall Street Pay Rebounds

The government reported this week that the real wage and salary income of finance industry employees based in Manhattan rose nearly 20 percent in the first quarter of this year. That surge helped make Manhattan the fastest-growing county in the United States in terms of terms of year-over-year gains in income.

Most Wall Street firms pay bonuses in the first quarter of each year, and the figures indicate that bonuses were much higher this year than in the same quarter of 2009. Then, of course, the financial crisis was at its most severe, with stock prices at 12-year lows and major banks being bailed out. It was not a good time to be paying bonuses.

The figures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics are based on unemployment compensation insurance premiums paid, and thus reflect virtually all employees rather than relying on surveys of workers or employers. Unfortunately, to get such detail requires substantial delays, which is why first-quarter figures are only now coming out.

As can be seen in the accompanying graphic, the average financial industry employee earned just over $100,000 in the first three months of the year, a figure that was up sharply from the same period of 2009 but still below the payouts in the previous three years.

The fact that those averages include bank tellers and trading desk clerks, as well as seniorinvestment bankers, shows just how large many of the bonuses were.

From 1990 — the first year for which figures are available — through 2007, the average financial salary in Manhattan rose almost 7 percent a year, after adjusting for inflation. In 2007, total financial industry pay in Manhattan topped $100 billion for the first time. But the average fell by nearly a quarter by 2009.

New York, unlike other cities, includes five counties, and the data includes only Manhattan, known formally as New York County. The figures cover people who work in the county, regardless of where they live.

New York remains the financial capital of the country. Manhattan has more financial workers than any other county, and those workers have a higher average income than similar workers in any other county.

In the first quarter, only 4.6 percent of the finance workers in the country worked in Manhattan. But they received 14.7 percent of the income paid to all finance workers — giving the average Manhattan worker income about three times as large as the overall figure.

Among counties with at least 20,000 financial industry workers, three of the next five counties with the highest average financial pay in the quarter were in the New York region — Fairfield County, Conn.; Hudson County, N.J.; and Westchester County, N.Y. The others were San Francisco County and Suffolk County (Boston), Mass.

Floyd Norris comments on finance and economics on his blog at nytimes.com/norris.

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Wall Street Pay Heads Toward New High $144 Billion

Financial Overhaul Has Affected Structure but Not Level; Revenue-to-Compensation Ratio Stays Flat

Liz Rappaport, Aaron Lucchetti, and Steven Grocer
Wall Street Journal

Pay on Wall Street is on pace to break a record high for a second consecutive year, according to a study conducted by The Wall Street Journal.

About three dozen of the top publicly held securities and investment-services firms—which include banks, investment banks, hedge funds, money-management firms and securities exchanges—are set to pay $144 billion in compensation and benefits this year, a 4% increase from the $139 billion paid out in 2009, according to the survey. Compensation was expected to rise at 26 of the 35 firms.

The data showed that revenue was expected to rise at 29 of the 35 firms surveyed, but at a slower pace than pay. Wall Street revenue is expected to rise 3%, to $448 billion from $433 billion, despite a slowdown in some high-profile activities like stock and bond

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