…there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a day’s wages, and three quarts of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”

“You’re naive, read the newspaper, number one. Number two, if you put your compensation in a one year context to define your overall level of happiness, you have a problem which is much bigger than the job. And number three, if you’re really unhappy, just leave. I mean, life’s too short.”-James Gorman, CEO of Morgan Stanley, telling employees who’re not happy with pay cuts to go home

Bloomberg reporting that Morgan Stanely is cutting employee pay by as much as 30%, as well as capping bonuses.  Is it because profits are down? Well they are down, but they still made a profit of $4.11 billion in 2011!

Oh, and CEO James Gorman got a 25% cut in pay.  He made only $10.5 million in 2011!  Is it because they’re being sued by two major banks over the home foreclosure fiasco? A German bank, and a French/Belgian bank, are suing for $1.2 billion, because they claim Morgan Stanley sold them bad mortgage investments between 2006 and 2007.

Officials with Morgan Stanley are not commenting on the lawsuit, they claim they don’t know anything about it (at this point).

But if Morgan Stanley is hurting for cash, why did they hire an ex team of ‘advisers’ from Merrill Lynch, for who knows how much?  It’s claimed Philip Ressa and Justin Cho made Merrill Lynch $2.1 million last year.

I think CEO James Gorman revealed the real reason for cutting pay and bonuses when, at the end of a statement to Bloomberg media, he said “…we have to respect the fact that shareholders have to get paid…”