Normally, Socialist Courier exposes the wealth of our local Scottish capitalists but on this occasion the Independent has revealed just how financially rewarding it is to be an American stock-market speculator and parasite .
Chief executive of Morgan Stanley bank , John Mack , took home $41.4m (£21m) last year but Trader Monthly , the journal of investment hedge fund managers , showed that even he would not have made their Top 100 List . The average take home pay of the 100 on the list was $241million and the total earnings for the list was $24.1billion.It is not a list of net worth and does not take into account stocks, options or anything other than cash made in the year .
T. BOONE PICKENS , oil trader , $1bn-$1.5bn
JOHN ARNOLD $1.5bn-$2bn , Mr Arnold's fund ended the year with a 317 per cent profit on its estimated $1bn of assets. About half of the fund is believed to be Mr Arnold's own money, cash he made at Enron
JAMES SIMONS , $1.5bn-$2bn , controls $24bn in assets and charges clients 5 per cent a year to look after their cash
EDDIE LAMPERT $1bn-$1.5bn , one of the doyennes of the buy-out industry, snapping up companies in the retail sector such as Kmart and Sears, and raking in cash through his $18bn (£9.1bn) ESL Investments fund.
STEVIE COHEN $1bn , whose hedge fund manages $5.5bn in assets and is one of the busiest trading businesses - made net returns of 30 per cent.
Socialists have always agreed with Sir Harvey Jones , a former chief executive of ICI commenting on modern capitalism - "Business is getting more corrupt...The stock market ... has purely become a gambling den..."
