Out on the Street: Anger is Bad Policy

Each week, “Joe the Trader” chronicles his experiences with life after Wall Street.

Joe the Trader is angry.

I’m angry at AIG, Merrill, and all the companies that are being propped up by the government and still paying people as if it were 2007. In January, I asked a good friend, Colin, who is employed by a troubled bank, how big a hit his bonus payment took.

“It really wasn’t all that bad,” he said. “I was paid down only 40%, but I don’t know how that’s possible—without the government we would be bankrupt.”