DAVID HAFFENREFFER, CNN ANCHOR: We are coming up on bonus time for many people in corporate America. For investment bankers this year, the bonuses are expected to be even higher than they were last year. This despite the fact that many of the major market indices posted declines, or will be posting declines for the year. Ian Rodger of the "Financial Times" joins us now from the "FT"'s London newsroom. And, Ian, why the big payouts on a down year?</s>IAN RODGER, INTL. NEWS EDITOR, "FINANCIAL TIMES": Well, it's mainly, as you can imagine, coming from the first half when things were still pretty bubbly; in fact, extraordinarily bubbly. Do you remember that in the first half, the bankers were having to give lots and lots of extra money to their young guys to prevent them from running off to the dot.coms. So we still haven't seen the picture from the second half. You expect it to be down a bit. But, still, as you say, the bonuses are likely to be up between 10 and 50 percent, and on some pretty big numbers. It is not chopped liver.</s>HAFFENREFFER: Ian, we're going to have to break it there because we have more now on this bombing in Tel Aviv this morning.
'Financial Times': Investment Bankers Likely to Get Record Bonuses This Year