From a story at money.cnn.com

http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/01/markets/hedge_fund_manager_pay/index.htm

“the 25 top-earning hedge fund managers made a record $25.3 billion last year … [this] marked a dramatic comeback from the beating managers took during the financial crisis … Income for top hedge fund bosses plummeted nearly 50% in 2008 to $11.6 billion” (emphasis mine)

Oh, those poor guys. Only 11.6 billion. They really took a beating.

It’s hard to take seriously claims that financial superstars need to be paid obscene amounts to make them perform well when they make only slightly less obscene amounts when they do terribly.