Morgan Stanley's Bonuses Get Saved By You and Me

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=azo7aySdpFHw&refer=home

This from Jonathan Weil on the Bloomberg website:

"You can imagine the devilish grins on the faces of Morgan Stanley employees last week, after the Treasury Department said it would pump $10 billion into the bank. Not only did we, the taxpayers, save their company, with the help of a Japanese bank named Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. More importantly, we funded their 2008 bonus pool."

Mr. Weil goes on to say: "Here's all you really need to know to see who lost and who benefited most at the Five Families of Wall Street, otherwise known as Goldman, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns. From the start of their 2004 fiscal years through yesterday, the big standalone investment banks lost about $83 billion of stock-market value. During the same period, they reported about $239 billion of employee-compensation expense........So, for every dollar of shareholder value destroyed, the employees got paid almost three. "