Banks Pay Themselves Bonuses, Deny Shareholders Dividends

Cramer is mad at the banks.

While "miserable" shareholders hang on to these "awful" equities, he said, bank employees are about to receive a record $144 billion in bonuses.

The financials are "by far the worst performing group" in the S&P 500 index, down 3.98 percent in the last year and 25 percent over the past three years. These assets pay almost no dividends to the shareholders, yet these financial institutions feel it's appropriate to pay out record bonuses.

Cramer said the shareholders, not the employees, deserve this money. The people "showering themselves with money" didn't do something so "monumental" as to justify these paydays.

"All these guys did was take the government money to stay in business, crush their own stocks, get rid of the dividend and now reward themselves with fortunes," Cramer said. "I say no bonuses until those dividends are returned to their old levels. Everything should be put back to the shareholders until they are back to even."

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