As we pointed out a few weeks ago, all things being equal to the first quarter, bonuses at Goldman Sachs should reach $675k this year. After conferring with various analysts, the Wall Street Journal appears to have reached a similar conclusion. It says Goldman’s on track to pay out around $700k per person this year, and that Morgan Stanley will pay around $340k. Both amounts are close to, or equal, the big payouts of 2007.

Banks’ profits are down to luck, not skill. (Financial Times)

Is Goldman legally frontrunning its clients? (Zerohedge)

Michael Lewis on AIG. (Vanity Fair, via economicsofcontempt)

Barclays Capital hires head of emerging markets syndicate from UBS. (Reuters)

Barclays Capital hires from Nomura in Japan. (Bloomberg)

Evolution hires someone else from Dresdner. (Financial News)

Credit Suisse wants several hundred people for Japanese private banking. (Wealth Bulletin)

Barclays Wealth wants two hundred high end private bankers in America. (Wealth Bulletin)

Credit Suisse and Deutsche are new hot prime brokers. (Wall Street Journal)

 Yes, the European Union has stress tests. (DealBook)