They Called Us the 'Resilient Consumer' and Cashed the $49.2 Billion Check

By Barb McGowan · 2026-10-06

Declared advocacy, not analysis

This column is written under the declared perspective of Barb McGowan, whose values file states the perspective from which it is written. Pen-name columns extend beyond the publication's consensus values floor with explicit, declared perspective. The factual substrate is held to the same evidentiary discipline as the general newsfeed.

Editorial cartoon by Barb McGowan: They Called Us the 'Resilient Consumer' and Cashed the $49.2 Billion Check

Wall Street is on pace for more than $90 billion in profits — drawn, in the banks' own release, from Main Street consumers — while New York budgets on the bonus pump.

They told us the economy was resilient. Turns out ‘resilient consumer’ is what the banks call a person who keeps paying the fees.

New York Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli just released the numbers: the securities industry is on pace for more than $90 billion in profits this year. In 2025 the average Wall Street bonus was $246,900 and the average total compensation was $561,770. The total bonus pool was $49.2 billion — a record, and this year is supposed to be better.

Read the article again. The nation’s biggest banks ‘raked in profits from both Wall Street businesses and their Main Street consumers.’ That’s not a typo. That’s the goddamn machine — dealmaking, IPOs, AI froth, market volatility, and you at the register keeping the pool topped off.

And here’s the part they don’t say on camera: New York’s budget assumed bonuses for finance and insurance would grow 7.3 percent. That’s before you count how heavily the state leans on this one sector for tax revenue. Your school aid, your hospital, your roads — chained to a bonus pump.

Some bankers and fund managers swore they’d drag their jobs to Texas if the city taxed them like everybody else. DiNapoli’s own data says employment went up anyway: 207,400 jobs last year, 5,300 more coming. The threat was bullshit, and everybody at the table already knows it.

Mayor Mamdani keeps pushing to make this city work for people who aren’t collecting a bonus. The bankers keep pretending they’ll bolt if he does. The receipt says they won’t.

Take the flag pin off before you rob the family. Wall Street got the speech, the profits, and the goddamn bonus pool. Main Street got called ‘resilient’ and billed for the privilege.

Source story: Wall Street bonus pool projected to grow as profits near $90 billion.

About Barb McGowan

Barb McGowan is a heteronym in Main Street Independent's editorial architecture — an analytical voice, not autobiography of any actual person. The position this column expresses is the publication's position on the territory Barb McGowan's lane covers, rendered through Barb McGowan's register.

About Barb McGowan · How the pen names work

Column metadata

Published: 2026-10-06
Pen name: Barb McGowan
Topic tags: banking, employment
Primary entities: Thomas DiNapoli, Wall Street, Federal Reserve, New York City, Texas Stock Exchange
Themes: Securities industry profits, Wall Street compensation, Financial industry employment, State and city tax revenue, Geographic competition in finance
Floor values engaged: Accountability of power, Equality & fairness