Surprise surprise, just kidding.  You give bankers cheap or free money and they will find a way to make profits, you can trust in that.  We should not be surprise that is happened, bankers are great are making money when things go up and when they tumble down.  We should have all heard about Goldman Sachs and the risk control strategy of shorting the investments they were selling to their sophisticated investors.  According to Reuters, bonuses rose by an average of $123,00 last year, at the rate it will double in just over 5 years time.

Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said on Tuesday profit for all of Wall Street could top $55 billion for 2009, nearly triple the previous record year. Last year, the U.S. economy began to stabilize as lenders raced to repay federal bailout money they had come to view as a stigma.

Average taxable bonuses on Wall Street rose to $123,850 in 2009, DiNapoli said in a statement. Compensation at Goldman Sachs Group Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Morgan Stanley, three of New York’s biggest banks, rose 31 percent, he added.

The comptroller’s annual report on Wall Street pay is closely watched not only by Wall Street, but also by politicians eager to rein in runaway pay in a still-weakened economy where unemployment remains high and tax revenue remains depressed.

While bonuses are well below the level set in 2007 and are now more closely tied to company performance, DiNapoli acknowledged that many may consider them out-sized given the lingering problems in the economy.

Analysis: The “Too Big to Fail” doctrine was a failure in itself, sure we averted financial disaster but at what cost?  We should of taken the pain and let those banks go bust so the next generation of banks do have the expectation that Governments will stand ready to save your bank if you make bad decisions even if it was the profitable and most popular one at the time.  We have set ourselves up for this to happen again and it will be much sooner than later.