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Goldman: "Blankfein $100 Million Bonus Is Speculative Nonsense"
In response to The Times' article on Lloyd's alleged $100 million bonus, Goldman has sent out an email early Monday in which it refutes the number and claims the whole story is "speculative nonsense." As the Dow Jones reports, Goldman's email appeals to everyone's heartstrings in realizing just what a generous, competitor-friendly, bailout-free and, in a word, godly organization it truly is:
"Everything Goldman Sachs has said and done in terms of compensation this year gives the lie to The Times story," the spokesman said. He added that Blankfein received no bonus in 2008, and that Goldman's ratio of compensation and benefits to net revenue in 2009 was the lowest in its
history as a public company.
Goldman has yet to state if the actual bonus number is lower or higher.
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I can't wait to see Goldman's Proxy Statement... I gather we'll see the dirty compansation details with full disclosure in March...
Maybe Mary Schapiro will issue a "national security" directive redacting most of the proxy statement....
dh- I laughed till i thought about how probably that really is.
Pay attention kids: we have to listen to what they are not saying.
A classic non-answer answer. The spin doctor(s) at GS should get the bonus considering the PR sh*t storm they have been dealing with the past 18 months. It's always difficult cleaning up after yourself when you've had repeated uncontrolled bowel movements.
Me: "Is it true that Lloyd Blankfein's 2009 bonus is $100 MM?"
GS: "No, that is absolutely ridiculous!"
Me: "Okay, how about $99.9 MM?"
GS: "No comment"
Points for abbreviating it 'MM' but -1 for putting an integer with a decimal, bankers don't deal with any increments <1MM
Fair point. However, in this case I assumed GS would focus on optics and be reluctant to use whole numbers. Why is the list price for item x $7.99 instead of $8.00....?
Llyod, I'll take your $100M and raise you $20M
I'll also throw in an area rug for $87,000
http://www.fundmymutualfund.com/2009/01/merrill-lynchs-thain-can-only-work-on.html
Yours in oligarchy, John Thain
Why is GS still a 'bank holding company'?? It only took 1 hour to flip them in - why can't they be flipped out?
<sarcasm>
WHAT?!?! Goldman Sachs is a bank and gets free money from the Federal Reserve plus FDIC and other benefits of a bank? Where is my local branch so i can open a checking account? Can i get a Goldman Sachs 'Black'-fein credit card?
</sarcasm>
The new era: Getting rich from Gov't handouts.
Forget an education, being a doctor, lawyer or an IT guy..... just wear a suit and declare insolvency, then you're on the path to financial freedom.
What a loser.
2009 figures:
Just a little reminder of who you are really working for:
Total Golem Sachs Employee Compensation $10,934,000,000
Employees 30,067
Average Pay $363,654
Bailout Money $10,000,000,000
Bailout funnelled to Golem Sachs through AIG $12,900,000,000
Total Taxpayer Welfare to Golem Sachs $22,900,000,000
Taxpayer loss per Golem Sachs employee $761,632
Despite massive losses, compensation for CEO Lloyd Blankfein
$60,000,000 in taxpayer funds authorized by Yobama and Congress.
Dome top formation in market with sucker breakout at the top parallels Goldmans' head and shoulders portending a possible steep decline. Short Goldman on next bounce. All that executive bonus money is probably going into put options on their own stock.
"speculative nonsense" = "you're a little early. The check hasn't even cleared yet."
LOL
$100 million for doing God's work? I had no idea the clergy paid so well...
"Speculative nonsense" is a good name for the investment products peddled by Goldman Sachs under Paulson and Blankfien, and for which grand juries need to be empaneled.
In normal times, Lloyd would be safe from prosecution. But these are not normal times.The probability of Lloyd's prosecution may be low, but public anger is growing with Congressional hearings, SIGTARP, etc.
It takes only one prosecutor to investigate just one crime, and follow the money and the connected crimes, and bring down the overlapping criminal enterprises using Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) prosecutions. Or, due to public anger, the Obama administration could decide to throw Lloyd overboard, Chicago-style. There is no honor among thieves; even the capo di tutti capi must go when he brings unwelcome public spotlight on the criminal enterprise.
Lloyd probably recognizes the small, but real and growing possibility that he faces prosecution. Lloyd gathering money for an army of defense lawyers would be risk management, preparing for the six sigma event, something for which Goldman Sachs is famous.
Whatever the bonus amount turns out to be, Lloyd may be worried that this will be his last chance to dump the collection plate into his pocket doing God's work.
Lloyd may be worried that he might be arrested and prosecuted for a series of God's goods works that mere mortals misinterpreted as the greatest financial crimes in U.S. history.
Lloyd may be worried that the number of state and federal prosecutors after him will snowball into scores of trials, with everyone, including Scotland Yard and the International Court of Justice in Hague after him, eager to be the first to bring him to justice and a life-time sentence in a hard-time prison.
Lloyd may be worried that he needs every $100 million he can lay his hands on to pay an army of defense lawyers to defend against the scores of prosecutions in state, federal, and international courts.
Lloyd may be worried that every Goldman Sachs man of God faces the same trials and tribulations, and thus, Lloyd needs to stuff their pockets so they will keep the faith and not bear false witness against Lloyd.
maybe he's actually getting paid in gold. (1100 now.)
Here's an interesting aside to the story. Hereafter, Blankfein's bonus will be measured, at least in part, against the $100 million rumor. Doubtful it will be higher, and doubtful it will actually be $100 million, but if it's lower than $100 million, it will be widely reported a lower than earlier rumored. And if it's something like $50 million, it will be seen as being half the rumored amount. You can take it from there.
A guest on CNBC speculated that a rival bank gave the information to the Financial Times. I fell of the chair laughing. Why not have GS, itself, create the rumor? When the number comes in less than $100m, CNBC can report that the number was substantially below $100m.
Joe Sixpack breathes a sign of relief.
"Wow it was only $80m, I am sure glad that it wasn't $100m. I don't know how Lloyd is going to make it $80m with all those deductions."
Maybe Liesman could actually interview a common man.
Great theater.
as most astute contributors have noted already, the article was speculative nonsense because the exact figure was not 100m usd; rather it was 100m +/- with the minus being very small and the plus being possibly quite sizeable...
what's 10m usd among friends?
"when its time to change, you've got to rearrange"
Peter Brady
The reason he doesn't actually get paid $100M is because they take out the taxes before that print the check.