Big Fat Wall Street Bonuses Imperiled

Meanwhile, investors elsewhere are struggling to figure out how to restart the gravy train.

"Bankers are trying to figure out how to get CLOs done again," says one ex-senior banker who is now a manager at a distressed investment shop. CLOs are collateralized loan obligations -- debt created by Wall Street in hopes of dispersing the risk of commercial loan deals.

One senior banker told TheStreet.com that executives who fed off leveraged buyout activity led by the likes of Blackstone (BX Quote) and Carlyle Group now are wringing their hands over the possibility jobs, let alone bonuses, might be go poof if the credit markets don't correct themselves soon.

The size of Wall Street's loan problem is sobering. On deck is more than $200 billion of bridge loans that banks have been offering up to private-equity shops to fund big LBO deals. Taking center stage of late has been Chrysler, which Cerberus is buying from DaimlerChrysler(DCX Quote).

This week, investors declined to buy Chrysler's debt, leaving the bankers backing Cerberus' buy of Chrysler -- Citi and JPMorgan, first and foremost -- on the hook for about $10 billion. They hope in the next few weeks to hawk that debt to market participants.

But it's not just Chrysler that has Wall Street fretting. The on-deck list includes buyouts of First Data(FDC Quote) and TXU(TXU Quote), along with many smaller deals.