Are you enjoying Bonus Day? (It's every New Yorker's favorite holiday, in this long stretch between Christmas and Passover.) The verdicts have been rolling in all day, as they are also rolling across the world between now and the end of the month. It's a funny thing! Remember how we used to hear about "talent retention"? That big compensation was mandatory to keep great talent at a firm (that was performing quite poorly)? That was already rich coming from a small industry that ditched of tens of thousands of staff, but it seems extra-hilarious now in the season of the wee bonus.

• Morgan Stanley: Sounds like an [...]

The rebound starts at the top, thanks to this year's massive stock market gains of the last three quarters (the Dow: up 4000 since March). And so: "Finance foot soldiers expect payouts that will 'make up' for the anemic year-end checks of 2008." Thank God they've recovered from the recession! Don't worry, it'll trickle down in '10. Or not.

The good news out of the state comptroller's office today is that Wall Street is recovering nicely. Lest we forget! "Wall Street employment accounts for 24 percent of all wages paid in New York City even though the securities industry accounts for less than 5 percent of all employment." How can we tell things are going well? Let's look at the financial industry's 2009!