America's 50 Richest Paydays(vanityfair.com)
vanityfair.com
America's 50 Richest Paydays
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/04/50paydays200804?printable=true¤tPage=all
3 comments
This article is fundamentally mistaken. Most of these
weren't increases in anyone's bottom line, but merely
converting one form of asset to another.
They are missing John Paulson ($3 to $4 billion) and John Arnold (possibly). And if they use the cash accounting method they seem to be using, anyone involved in finance is going to look good. A derivatives trader with 100% daily turnover could manage a $1 million portfolio that gave him $250 million in gross cash flow ($1 million in turnover X 250 or so trading days). Terribly flawed.
Also consider the tax implications and the biggest payday goes to the Department of the Treasury. So, even though there was a transfer in asset categories, it wasn’t one-for-one.