James P. Gorman -Morgan Stanley
Also in his first full year as chief executive, James Gorman received a stock grant valued at $3.9 million and options valued at $3.5 million. Unfortunately, Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) weren’t so lucky – shares of the company tumbled by more than 7 percent last year. Reuters

Investors can expect an end to the Federal Reserve’s $85 billion a month bond-buying program within the next couple of months as the economy continues to recover, according to Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) CEO James Gorman.

The government shutdown and the race to raise the debt ceiling prompted most investors to push back their bets on the end of the taper until March, Gorman told CNBC on Thursday.

“The best result is the economy is demonstrating it truly is recovering and tapering happens. It’s a good outcome. If someone is surprised by this over the next couple of months — and it will occur in the next couple of months — then shame on them. There’s been plenty of warning here,” he said.

“Every now and then, markets behave like schoolchildren. They overreact, they run around like crazy. We know we’re going to have tapering, we know we are living in an artificial state of excess liquidity right now, and it’s happening because the economy is recovering,” he added.

Many believe the Fed was planning to announce a scaleback of the program during its September meeting, but it decided to wait for more evidence of a sustained recovery.

Morgan Stanley