Wall Street is nothing if not dumb

begging to be smaked. On the other hand would'nt you want to get something now at a lower tax rate then later? It is a free market and government and congress does not have the balls to do anything other than destroy us all. I am looking for an exit. any suggestions?

The point of the stock bonus was to create long term incentive. The truth about swaps is that they are tool to engage in regulatory or other arbitrage or more to to the point enable men to do what they are told they cannot.

I'm fairly sure I've heard of a way for Wall Street to sell their bonus, maintain voting rights and lock in a profit on their restricted stock albeit at a discount. Maybe this is the way, but I thought there was another wrinkle.

where can I get this dumb job?
I can slap backs and cat call with the best of them.
A job with excessive pay and minor responsibility, has my name all over it.
The goose that laid the golden egg is dieing. Rather than nurse it back to health they are going to squeeze every last egg out before they eat it for dinner.

Gotta love the street . Close the door they go in through the window

The public misunderstands Wall Street. Too often they are thought to be smarter, when in reality they are in the right place and benefit from a REALLY good book. Hopefully Wall Street will learn not to drink the coffee until after they close the deal. Coffee is for closers.

Here's how I always thought things worked in America: employees work, and then get paid. If they use legal means to do whatever with their earnings then that is their personal business. At least that used to be the case, before the socialists in the government and press started whining. If you want to live in an environment where the government regulates pay, then North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela are waiting for you.

If you want to live an environment where the government has to regularly come in and prop up employers...

right here is waiting for you.

Its amazing how there were no complaints about the taxpayers saving the banks from collapse, but just months later, folks are screaming about government involvement.

I'm all for free markets, but you don't get free market rewards when you FAILED in the free market.

Goldie. The problem with the last go around was aig. I have a great regulatory idea. We should carve out a section of bk law for insurance companies whereby everyone except the insurance policy holders gets crammed down. Ie Goldman, bonus employees, shareholders wouldve just been general unsecured creditors.

this is what banks do best! i find this a very innovative way to monetize their earnings. lets face it, if your employer said, 'hey, here's 85% of your bonus but you can't touch it for 3 years,' i'd like to find a way around that as well. although i agree that senior employees should have strict ties to their company and compensation should be linked to long term performance, subjecting the average individual to this is ridiculous. it restricts job mobility, because theoretically next year, when you get your bonus, it too will be a 3-year vesting period, so you're continually stuck. and what impact does this have on the real estate market?! it certainly won't allow an increase in sales for the mid-level banker--he won't have enough money for several years to pay his downpayment!

Tech CEOs with lockups have been doing this for quite a while. It should not come as a big surprise.

People have been doing this for decades, usually for corporate executives rather than wall street types. Bear Stearns made a cottage industry out of this practice, usually in the form of a collar and a put that allowed corporate execs (particularly those that wanted to diversify without spooking the market) to essentialy transfer the risk/rewards of ownership to a bank for cash. Better written stock and option plans do not allow employees to do this. And, for reporting persons the practice is fraught with risk. It remains unclear whether these instruments constitute a short sale in violation of SEC rules, and whether SEC filings that say John Doe owns 2% of the company are false if the economics of the equity were sold to someone else.

the SEC should have taken action on this practice long ago - not as a violation of short sale rules but as a violation by corporate insiders and the required holding periods for restricted stock. asleep at the wheel again.

http://www.jcbraddock.com/book/chapter13.html

Some of these sound more shady than others..

The monetization and hedging strategies available to investors depend on whether they meet certain levels of suitability. Although certain strategies may be pursued for persons affiliated with the company and whose stock is involved in a proposed transaction (i.e., officers, directors, or other control persons, such as shareholders of greater than 5 percent of the company's outstanding common stock), many of these strategies relate only to nonaffiliates (i.e., individuals who are not officers, directors, or other control persons). The proposed counterparty to each strategy is assumed to be a broker–dealer or other financial organization that legally engages in structuring concentrated equity transactions. Such private transactions usually arise through introductions made by investment executives or other sales personnel to financial engineers. Restricted stock and concentrated equity transactions typically provide higher broker commissions than other, less complex types of securities transactions.

Discounted Private Equity Sales. Discounted private sale by investor of restricted stock to counterparty who holds stock until it is freely tradable or otherwise further monetizes it or sells it pursuant to an exemption from registration; investor loses all control and equity ownership in the stock, receives less than 100 percent of the current market value of the stock, but has no economic risk in the position going forward.

Monetizing Equity Swap. Investor exchanges cash flow obligations with a counterparty relating to investor's restricted stock or concentrated equity position in exchange for the returns of another asset or diversified index; transaction generates temporary cash proceeds to the investor who retains stock ownership and voting rights but is still exposed to market price risk