The latest numbers from Wall Street and Washington, D.C., paint a picture of stark contrast; Wall Street bonuses are back up while Main Street struggles and 15 million Americans are unemployed.

When the Dow Jones industrial average, the best-known stock market index, topped 10,000 last week, there were cheers on Wall Street. The Dow first hit 10,000 in 1999, and its most recent return suggests a significant recovery from last year's stock market collapse, triggered by the financial crisis involving mortgage-backed securities and risky investments.

Wall Street enjoyed a party atmosphere when the Dow moved past 10,000, but on Main Street it's a different story with national unemployment at 9.8 percent and likely to creep higher as many businesses struggle to survive.

Some of the big banks, those whose primary business is loaning money, are still struggling with bad loans. But investment banks, those who bet on stocks, bonds and a variety of complex financial instruments, are back to making a killing.

Goldman Sachs reported a $3.19 billion third-quarter profit and JPMorgan Chase topped that figure with a $3.6 billion quarterly profit. And as a reward, Goldman is planning to pay its employees a record $29 billion in bonuses for 2009.

According to a recent report published in the Wall Street Journal, those two banks along with 21 others are planning to pay a total of $140 billion in bonuses this year, a record that tops the 2007 bonuses awarded during the height of the bubble leading up to the crash of 2008, and the resulting recession.

Most, if not all, of the banks planning bonuses received financial help from the U.S. Treasury, meaning American taxpayers, to weather the storms of the financial crisis. Now, many of them are posting record profits from making more risky bets.

Many, notably Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, also are benefiting from having changed their status from an investment bank to a bank holding company, which provides several benefits, including the ability to borrow money from the Federal Reserve at interest rates currently near zero.

And some of the financial institutions that were deemed too big to fail in the 2008 crisis are now even bigger. Some of their competitors have vanished, leaving the survivors with more power and a greater ability to set prices for their services.

Most Americans, at least Americans not working for investment banks, are outraged by the latest bonus news. As usual, politicians are saying they're outraged too. But their words are not matched by action.

The well-worn path between Wall Street and Washington, D.C., means that many former Wall Street executives are now serving in the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve and at the White House. The return of business as usual and multimillion-dollar bonuses on Wall Street suggests that the Washington elite are more in tune with, or at least more beholden to, Wall Street than Main Street — through lobbying and campaign contributions.

Over the weekend, words of outrage were expressed by White House officials and members of Congress. Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, said Americans "have a right to be frustrated and angry" at the prospect of big bonuses being paid by banks that have been supported, and in some cases saved, by taxpayer funds. But reforms promised by politicians to reduce the systemic risk and excesses of Wall Street have yet to materialize.

President Barack Obama, like many others, also has spoken out, condemning Wall Street's "money culture" and greed. But there has been no action to back up the tough talk.

Obama and the others say all the right things, suggesting they're bothered by Wall Street's return to the punch bowl. But there's little evidence that they relate to Main Street — or will take on Wall Street.

As columnist Frank Rich noted in the New York Times,"It's hard to see how any public official can challenge a culture that he is marinating in, night and day."

— J.L.W.III