Time to indulge in a little schadenfreude, boys. Lloyd Blankfein is used to seeing himself and his bank in the number one position, but I'm guessing he's not too happy about it this time. That's right, kids. Of the top 20 largest CEO pay cuts in 2009, Lloyd saw the largest drop of all in his comp from 2008: down a whopping $40.1 million.
In fact, Wall Street CEOs made up the top 3 on the list, with Vikram Pandit of Citi at number 2 (down $38.1 million from 2008) and Jamie Dimon at number 3 (down $34.5 million from 2008). Bringing Wall Street representation to a full 20% of the list, BofA's Ken Lewis clocked in at number 11 (down $9 million from 2008) with a total comp package of $32,171 for the year. Ouch. I'm pretty sure BofA tellers make more than that. Come to think of it, John Thain paid more than that for a toilet.
We won't be seeing Ken on the biggest pay cut list for 2010, but he might make the biggest pay increase list. He got paid $64 million to walk away from the train wreck he created at the end of 2009. I doubt we'll be seeing any other Wall Street faces on the list next year either.
But the one person we'll be seeing again for sure hit this year's list at number 10: Mark Hurd. If he thought dropping $9.8 million in a year was tough, well, let's just say he learned the hard way to never trust anything that bleeds for a week and doesn't die.
In the final analysis, this list is for the first 12 months following the biggest market massacre in 4 generations, so it makes sense that the top investment bankers would take a huge hit. 2010 numbers will definitely tell a different story. But it's still perversely fun to see the guys at the top take it in the shorts, even if it is an anomaly.
What about GM and Chrysler CEOs making $1 until the bailouts are paid off?
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