All $6 Billion bailout money to GS will be paid out as bonuses to partners

Goldman Sachs ready to hand out £7bn salary and bonus package... after its £6bn bail-out

By Simon Duke
Last updated at 8:55 AM on 30th October 2008

Goldman Sachs is on course to pay its top City bankers multimillion-pound bonuses - despite asking the U.S. government for an emergency bail-out.

The struggling Wall Street bank has set aside £7billion for salaries and 2008 year-end bonuses, it emerged yesterday.

Each of the firm's 443 partners is on course to pocket an average Christmas bonus of more than £3million.

The size of the pay pool comfortably dwarfs the £6.1billion lifeline which the U.S. government is throwing to Goldman as part of its £430billion bail-out.

As Washington pours money into the bank, the cash will immediately be channelled to Goldman's already well-heeled employees.

News of the firm's largesse will revive the anger over the 'rewards for failure' culture endemic in the world of high finance.

The same bankers who have brought the global economy to its knees seem to pocketing the same kind of rewards they got during the boom years.

Gordon Brown has vowed to crack down on the culture of greed in the City as part of his £500billion bail-out of the UK banking industry.

But that won't affect the estimated 100 London partners working at Goldman Sachs's London headquarters.

The firm - known as Golden Sacks for the bumper bonuses it pay its top bankers - is expected to cut the payouts by a third this year. However, profits are

falling much faster. Earnings have plunged 47 per cent so far this year amid the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

This has wiped more than 50 per cent off the company's market value.

The news comes after it was revealed that even bankers working for collapsed Wall Street giant, Lehman Brothers, could receive huge payouts.

Its 10,000 U.S. staff are expected to share a £1.5billion bonus pool. The payouts were agreed as part of the rescue takeover of Lehman's American arm by Barclays last month.

The blockbuster handouts caused consternation among London employees of the firm, many of whom have now lost their jobs.

Even workers at the nationalised Northern Rock will scoop bonuses worth up to £50million over the next three years.

The extraordinary handouts include more than £400,000 for Rock's boss, Gary Hoffman, who is likely to become Britain's best-paid public sector worker.

The majority of Northern Rock's 4,000 workers will receive four separate bonus payments - the first of

which will be made next March. Staff will get an extra 10 per cent on top of their basic salary.

Lloyds TSB also intends to pay its employees bonuses despite taking a £5.5 billion emergency cash injection from the taxpayer.

News of Goldman's bonus plan came as the firm promoted 92 of its bankers to partner level. A quarter are based in Fleet Street, London.

Partnership is the holy grail of the investment banking world as the exclusive club shares around a fifth of the firm's total bonus pool.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo last night warned that Wall Street firms taking government-money risk breaking the law if they hand the cash straight back to employees.

Cash-strapped workers are being penalised by pay rises which are far below the soaring cost of living, research reveals today.

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One more reason Rick Santelli was opposed to the bailout. LINK

A quote from an article on Ibank bonuses at Bloomberg...

"[John] Gutfreund, the former Salomon CEO, said Wall Street executives are likely to find ways to pay bonuses and manage the political uproar.

``I'm sure there are creative ways,'' he said. ``There are all kinds of devices to cover yourself in terms of paying people.'' "

Hi everyone, IMHO, GS's actions to divert the bail-out money from its designated purpose is an extreme example of ethical egoism, a moral theory that is concerned with self-serving morality and its implications, i.e., "what is right, or what one ought to do, is to act in accordance with one's own self-interest" (Business Ethics, Snoeyenbos, Almeder, and Humber, 1992), and is the antithesis of Immanuel Kant's "Categorical Imperative," a deontological philosophically-based moral theory, that requires one to act morally in all instances without exception and to treat our fellow human beings morally and as an end and not to treat human beings as a means to obtain other objectives. IMVHO, GS's actions are an outrage and a misuse of the allocation of public monies! Cheers, Bob-C

Hi everyone, IMHO, GS's actions to divert the bail-out money from its designated purpose is an extreme example of ethical egoism, a moral theory that is concerned with self-serving morality and its implications, i.e., "what is right, or what one ought to do, is to act in accordance with one's own self-interest" (Business Ethics, Snoeyenbos, Almeder, and Humber, 1992), and is the antithesis of Immanuel Kant's "Categorical Imperative," a deontological philosophically-based moral theory, that requires one to act morally in all instances without exception and to treat our fellow human beings morally and as an end and not to treat human beings as a means to obtain other objectives. IMVHO, GS's actions are an outrage and a misuse of the allocation of public monies!

Cheers,

Bob-C

I like the cut of your jib Bob, but if we're going to sic the philosophers on the bastages it should be the
GREEKS

Hi everyone, IMHO, GS's actions to divert the bail-out money from its designated purpose is an extreme example of ethical egoism, a moral theory that is concerned with self-serving morality and its implications, i.e., "what is right, or what one ought to do, is to act in accordance with one's own self-interest" (Business Ethics, Snoeyenbos, Almeder, and Humber, 1992), and is the antithesis of Immanuel Kant's "Categorical Imperative," a deontological philosophically-based moral theory, that requires one to act morally in all instances without exception and to treat our fellow human beings morally and as an end and not to treat human beings as a means to obtain other objectives. IMVHO, GS's actions are an outrage and a misuse of the allocation of public monies!

Cheers,

Bob-C

I like the cut of your jib Bob, but if we're going to sic the philosophers on the bastages it should be the
GREEKS

Hi Jack, thanks very much for your comments and the excellent, brilliant, and the very funny Monty Python video about a soccer contest between the Greek and German philosophers. LOL!!!

Have a great day and good luck on your trades.

Best,

Bob

Hi everyone, IMHO, GS's actions to divert the bail-out money from its designated purpose is an extreme example of ethical egoism, a moral theory that is concerned with self-serving morality and its implications, i.e., "what is right, or what one ought to do, is to act in accordance with one's own self-interest" (Business Ethics, Snoeyenbos, Almeder, and Humber, 1992), and is the antithesis of Immanuel Kant's "Categorical Imperative," a deontological philosophically-based moral theory, that requires one to act morally in all instances without exception and to treat our fellow human beings morally and as an end and not to treat human beings as a means to obtain other objectives. IMVHO, GS's actions are an outrage and a misuse of the allocation of public monies!

Cheers,

Bob-C

UNCONSCIONABLE!... Look what they do... anything they want... and apparently we are powerless to stop them.

"Government of the people, buy the people, and for the people...." perished from this earth a long time ago.

Now it's Government At The Expense Of The People... unlikely to change any time soon...

Hi everyone, IMHO, GS's actions to divert the bail-out money from its designated purpose is an extreme example of ethical egoism, a moral theory that is concerned with self-serving morality and its implications, i.e., "what is right, or what one ought to do, is to act in accordance with one's own self-interest" (Business Ethics, Snoeyenbos, Almeder, and Humber, 1992), and is the antithesis of Immanuel Kant's "Categorical Imperative," a deontological philosophically-based moral theory, that requires one to act morally in all instances without exception and to treat our fellow human beings morally and as an end and not to treat human beings as a means to obtain other objectives. IMVHO, GS's actions are an outrage and a misuse of the allocation of public monies!

Cheers,

Bob-C

UNCONSCIONABLE!... Look what they do... anything they want... and apparently we are powerless to stop them.

"Government of the people, buy the people, and for the people...." perished from this earth a long time ago.

Now it's Government At The Expense Of The People... unlikely to change any time soon...

Hi HoseB, thanks for your caring and well-stated insights.

Cheers,

Bob-C

One more reason Rick Santelli was opposed to the bailout. LINK

Rog,
Is Popeye getting ready for WW111 ???