Goldman, Morgan, JPMorgan Plan $30 Billion Bonuses:Today's Outrage

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The bank bonus debate is being stoked today by a Bloomberg report estimating that $30 billion in payouts will be made by Goldman Sachs (GS Quote), Morgan Stanley (MS Quote) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM Quote) this year.

The reward money will be split among 119,000 employees at the banks, for an average of $250,400 each, which Bloomberg conveniently points out is five times the median household income in the U.S. last year. That's enough to give more than half a million unemployed Americans a decent salary.

Even more irksome to the general populace, whose tax dollars financed the massive banking bailout that kept bankers in business, is that average bonuses are expected to increase as much as 40% this year, according to the compensation consulting firm Options Group, whose analysis Bloomberg cited.

As if it wasn't insult enough to pay bonuses at all given near-death experience of the financial system this year, Goldman, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan seem to be going out of their way to thumb their noses at everyone who helped them when they were down.

The biggest chunk of bonus money will go to the folks who trade in fixed income securities, which became the biggest game in town when the markets were collapsing and investors scrambled for the relative safety of bonds.

The folks in fixed income didn't have to earn the bonuses because the money came rushing over to them amid all the panic that the banks created with the financial meltdown. Talk about easy money.

Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is begging the banks to start lending again in order to help the rest of the country get out of the mess that the banks created - and he's not getting any love back.