Big LBOs are teetering, but Wall Street still planning record bonuses

Wall Street has a short memory when it comes to pay. That's what came to mind when I saw a report saying that many big leveraged buyouts (LBOs) are in trouble -- four of the 10 biggest companies bought in leveraged buyouts have stopped paying back the money they borrowed. Nevertheless, Wall Street will pay itself record bonuses in 2009.

Unless my memory is failing me, it was only 14 months ago that Wall Street nearly went bankrupt. Without trillions of dollars in taxpayer money, it's highly unlikely that it would be in a position to pay itself $140 billion in bonuses this year.