Bloomberg's Matt Levine does a fine job of explaining why the New York Times news article about hedge fund manager pay is totally inaccurate. Mr. Levine writes:
"Even the lowest-ranking manager on Alpha magazine's expanded top-50 list made more money in 2016 than any big United States bank executive," reports the New York Times, incorrectly. Lloyd Blankfein owns 2.7 million shares of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which were up about $158 million in 2016; add $7 million of dividends and his $22 million in official compensation and you get about $187 million, putting him easily into the top 25. Jamie Dimon's numbers at JPMorgan Chase & Co. -- 10.4 million shares (including options), almost $210 million in capital gain, $19 million in dividends and $27 million in reported compensation -- put him at about $256 million; the cutoff for the top 10 hedge-fund managers is $410 million. Of course we don't usually think about a bank chief executive officer's stock price appreciation as compensation, but if a hedge-fund manager's returns on his own capital count as pay, then so should the bank CEO's.
It'll be interesting to see whether the New York Times corrects this inaccuracy or if it just lets it slide.