That's what you could conclude, if you compare investment banking pay with compensation paid to sports stars. And respected Rochdale Securities bank analyst Richard Bove has done just that.

According to the New York Times DealBook column, Bove's recent note 'Financial Execs Underpaid ?' points out that golf superstar Tiger Woods bagged $128m last year, while Merrill CEO John Thain 'only' got $83m in 2007 (the last decent year for the industry). Bove also mentions that the average N.B.A basketball player makes around $5m-a-year, while the 'average' staffer at Goldman Sachs is thought likely to bag $800,000 this year. Having said that, golfers and basketball players don't tend to do things that screw up the global economy!

And things are indeed looking up for those Dresdner Kleinwort bankers now firmly (or no-so-firmly) ensconced over at Commerzbank. Although many of the staff are still thought to be miffed about the losing out on bonuses last year, Handelsblatt reports that Commerzbank is to introduce a derivative of the Dresdner logo as its new corporate emblem (although it will be yellow, instead of green). It is apparently hoped that the new logo will make the Dresdner folks feel better about their plight. One Dresdner Kleinwort banker told Here Is The City: 'It's not a new corporate logo that a lot of us are after; it's a new job!'.

Finally, The Wall Street Journal points out that there is an upside for many of the bankers who have lost their jobs over the last 18 months or so. Typical is former Merrill Lynch loan sales and trading executive John Servin, who says: 'I had become complacent about my life. I wasn't using my brain' (Ed's note - very few bankers were using the old grey matter in the last few years, John). The newspaper also quotes former Credit Suisse banker Robert Villapando, who is currently driving a truck to earn a living. Villapando, 55, said: 'I had to reinvent myself. (Now) I can clean toilets, I can do mortgage banking, I can drive a truck' (Ed's note - but can he tie his shoelaces ?)

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