"Doing God's work" is not free. In fact, it seems that god is a firm believer in a year end bonus. Goldman CEO Blankfein just announced that his company survived because it was "stable" during the crisis and what the reason for that "stability" was:
- *BLANKFEIN: GOLDMAN WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN STABLE WITHOUT BONUSES
So... if taxpayer bailouts hadn't funded bankers' bonuses, which in the year after the bailout hit an all time high, all hell could have broken loose at the world's largest depositor-insured hedge fund. Just think how much higher employment and income growth could have been in that worst-case scenario.