Confessions of a Korean-American Man in New York City

Long time I know but it's been a busy year with many ups and downs, but hopefully I'll be able to write out some thoughts. With that said, I'm in London right now. Over a couple of beers with a friend who resides here and works in finance, we chatted about the worst financial catastrophe since the great depression. At the micro level, I've lost 30% of my 401(k) just in Ocotber alone. Ugh! Anyway, I asked my friend to explain to me why the remaining banks are going to distribute bonuses! For what! So the government is bailing out these banks by providing funding, and in turn they're refusing to do actually what the bailout funds were intended to do and that was to stimulate lending. And on top of that, they're giving out bonuses! Wait a minute! Doesn't that mean money is essentially being transfered to the rich bankers from the government? And the banks response for providing bonuses is that they will lose talent. What! To what? There is no need to worry about losing talent because there are no more wall street jobs. Where are they going to go? 7-11? Now I'm not sure if this is true but I hear the Lehman folks who were absorbed by Barclays are promised to get the same bonsues from the previous year - which was a bonanza last year - to ensure they remain with the company. Doh! The people who are getting bonuses are the same people who got us into this turmoil? And also were rewarded years earlier for such bets. So they got paid big time in previous years and they're getting bailed out and getting a bonus again. Someone explain this to me like I'm a 4th grader.