Credit Talk USA Live - JPMorgan's Dimon gets $23 million for 2011 ....

JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon says 2011 was a good year, but that "contrived" banking regulations are slowing the U.S.'s economic recovery.
FORTUNE -- Jamie Dimon is still Wall Street's top dog.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) disclosed on Wednesday afternoon that it paid its CEO $23 million in 2011. That was the same as last year, but it handily made Dimon, for the second year in a row, the best paid CEO in banking in 2011 - a year in which many other top financial executives saw their pay cut. Dimon's pay for instance, was more than double rival Goldman Sachs (GS) CEO Lloyd Blankfein, whose pay likely dropped to $9 million for 2011, down nearly $4 million from the year before. The only CEO who was even close to Dimon was Wells Fargo's (WFC) John Stumpf, who got a total pay package of just under $20 million.
Dimon received $6 million of his $23 million in salary or cash bonus. The rest was paid in restricted stock and options, the first portion of which will start to vest in early 2014. And while Dimon was also the only JPMorgan executive who managed to avoid a pay cut in 2011, the pay of the other executives make it clear that big paydays are far from over on Wall Street. JPMorgan's investment banking chief James Staley, for instance, got paid $16 million for last year, including a $5.3 million cash bonus. JPMorgan's CFO Douglas Braunstein saw the biggest drop in pay to $9.5 million for 2011, down $3 million from the year before.

http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2012/04/04/jpmorgan-ceo-dimon-23-million/?iid=HP_River

CTUSA - Middle class income falls ... but not everywhere

http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/26/news/economy/middle_class_income/index.htm?iid=Lead


Nationwide, median household income fell to $50,046 in 2010, down 1.4% from 2007, according to Census statistics released last week.
But while the Great Recession wreaked havoc across the nation, wide disparity among the states shows that not all the pain was shared equally. Some Americans were still able to get ahead despite soaring unemployment and the housing collapse.

In 21 states and the District of Columbia, households in the middle of the pay scale saw their incomes rise despite the recession, according to a CNNMoney analysis of the data. These lucky folks benefited largely from the growth of the federal government, higher energy and agriculture prices, and the rebound on Wall Street.