The inevitable new protege in WS2 better do blow off a hooker's ass though out the entire go-go second act. And he better not be black. We know there's no black guys on Wall Street besides Will Smith, the robo-box salesman.

By Christine Harper

Jan. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Wall Street's five biggest firms are paying a record $39 billion in bonuses for 2007, a year when three of the companies suffered the worst quarterly losses in their history and shareholders lost more than $80 billion.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch & Co., Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Bear Stearns Cos. together awarded $65.6 billion in compensation and benefits last year to their 186,000 employees. That means year-end bonuses, at 60 percent of the total, exceeded the $36 billion distributed in 2006 when the industry reported all-time high profits.

The New York-based firms, which shed 25 percent of their equity value during 2007, have said they're eliminating at least 6,200 jobs amid mounting losses from the collapse of the subprime mortgage market. The payouts come as the U.S. economy slows, with unemployment rising, retail sales declining and new home foreclosures surging to a record.

``To many people, it will be shocking and questionable,'' said Jeanne Branthover, managing director of Boyden Global Executive Search in New York. ``People in New York in the world of investment banking will understand it. It's critical that pay is still there or you're going to lose really good people.''

The industry's bonuses are larger than the gross domestic products of Sri Lanka, Lebanon or Bulgaria, and the average bonus of $219,198 is more than four times higher than the median U.S. household income in 2006, according to data compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau.----

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Remember kids - This isn't a failure of the free market: It's Victory!

Doc: "Marty, you have to go back and save the series from the ultimate doom of doing a western re-make"

Marty: "But Doc, I like horses. Plus, it make me a millionaire."

Doc: We should have stopped with the hover-board."

Doc: "By God, your right. What's stopping us from cashing in on the ignorance of the American public. Let's do it!"