“A lot of our folks have second and third homes and alimony payments and other obligations that require substantial current cash.”
—-A banker quoted anonymously by Stephen Brill in his essay, “What’s a Bailed-Out Banker Worth?” in the Jan.3 New York Times Magazine. The article discusses that financial industry’s rationale (or rationalizations) for its compensation culture.
Ethics Alarms 
I don’t know what I’d do with two homes, let alone three or more. This is bull.
The real problem is the vast amount of money that Wall Street is entitled to no matter what they do. They have a legal monopoly on the buying and selling of stocks, which is required by most people now if they want to retire. As a result, they receive roughly 5% of the GDP of the country no matter what they do (currently $700 billion/year). That works out to over $2000 for every man woman and child in this country that goes to Wall Street purely for the stock commission. For comparison, the federal government only brings in ~$6,000 per person. Until this monopoly is broken, nothing will change. Time to replace Wall Street with a website. Most of the trades are done automatically by computer anyway.