I have to say that I really, really like this idea from William D. Cohan, author of "House of Cards". He suggests that Wall Street worked well for everyone in the past mainly because in the days of partnerships, firm management had a personal stake in the profits and losses of the overall firm. About how the industry works today, he writes:
"Over the past generation, this business model has worked well for one group in particular: the bankers, traders and honchos who work on Wall Street. These days on Wall Street, around 50 percent of every dollar of revenue generated is paid out to its employees in the form of compensation. What other business on earth does this? None."
What gets lost in this last statement is that while $0.50 of every $1.00 of revenue is spent on compensation, I wonder what how many cents on that $0.50 goes to the rank-and-file staff that make their firms run day-to-day in thankless jobs? I'd say no more than $0.02 of $0.50 go to the people that give up much of their own personal lives only to be overlooked in good times and be the first ones booted out in bad times.
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