>That said, the "profitability" of the big banks is somewhat irrelevant. JP Morgan, Goldman, etc, evolved out of partnerships, where all the profits went to the

>That said, the "profitability" of the big banks is somewhat irrelevant. JP Morgan, Goldman, etc, evolved out of partnerships, where all the profits went to the partners. To this day, the banks pay out most of their revenues as compensation. "Profits" are what's left after all that. Couldn't the argument be easily changed to "Big bank executive compensation is subsidized by taxpayers"?