Check To Obama: Lloyd To Get $100 Million Bonus

Now that's some serious pocket change you can believe in. If correct, Blankfein's 2009 bonus will be over 30% greater than his $68 million take home in 2007, the previous all time record year for Wall Street. Check to you, Mr. President: surely this will merit some more populist rhetoric and even more decisive complete lack of action on your behalf. From the Times of London:

Goldman Sachs, the world’s richest investment bank, could be about to pay its chief executive a bumper bonus of up to $100 million in defiance of moves by President Obama to take action against such payouts.

Bankers in Davos for the World Economic Forum (WEF) told The Times yesterday they understood that Lloyd Blankfein and other top Goldman bankers outside Britain were set to receive some of the bank’s biggest-ever payouts. “This is Lloyd thumbing his nose at Obama,” said a banker at one of Goldman’s rivals.

Goldman Sachs is becoming the focus of an increasingly acrimonious political and financial showdown over the payment of multimillion-pound bonuses.Last week the US President described bonuses paid out by some banks as “the height of irresponsibility” and “shameful”.

“The American people understand that we have a big hole to dig ourselves out of, but they do not like the idea that people are digging a bigger hole, even as they are being asked to fill it up,” he said last week.

If indeed the bonus number is correct, this is a slap not only in the face of the president, of Volcker, not to mention the other clowns in the economic advisory circle, but all of America's taxpayers.

A bumper payout for Mr Blankfein would come after discussions by Goldman’s rivals in Europe to limit executive pay in order to appease politicians and the public failed last week. Joseph Ackermann, the chairman of Deutsche Bank, floated the idea of a remuneration cap at a private meeting of top bankers in Davos on Thursday, but failed to gain sufficient support. Last night it appeared that Deutsche had abandoned the plan and decided to pay some of its own top executives bonuses of millions of pounds.

The possibility of a bonus cap was discussed at a recent meeting between Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, and top executives from Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, Standard Chartered, Citigroup and Barclays Capital. A banking source said it quickly became apparent at that meeting that a bank-led pay cap would be unenforceable because rival bankers would not stick to any agreement. “These guys have been rivals for years and they just don’t trust each other to do it,” said one source who was at the meeting.

In other news, the Cessnas are fueled and ready, the beach houses in non-extradition French Polynesia islands are stocked with Red Bull (for those Goldman HFT traders who just... can't...quit), and the people are about to almost bring the picks and shovels to Wall Street. Almost. But not quite. After all, that 301(k) is up by a whopping 20% last year: surely the good times will roll for ever.