Investment bankers and stock brokers are hurting. Bonuses for bankers have been slashed across Wall Street. As James Stewart noted over the weekend in The New York Times, the bankers and traders at Morgan Stanley were particularly stunned as the firm announced it was capping cash bonuses for 2011 at $125,000! That’s huge money for the 99%, but a pittance by today’s standards on the Street.
Stock brokers, meanwhile, the retail guys who sell stocks in offices across the country, are also hurting because the commissions they live on are down, way down, by most industry accounts. Last year’s volatility scared the bejesus out of the Mom-and-Pop investor, and they are staying away from the stock market in droves, hurting brokers’ pay.
In fact, the lack of business for brokers is so bad, that many small and middle-tier firms have begun to wither on the vine and even shut their
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