Goldman executives get big 2009 fund payouts

[OhioChick]

Source: Reuters

20 Mar 2010, 0347 hrs IST, REUTERS

NEW YORK: Senior executives at Goldman Sachs Group Inc got hefty 2009 payouts after all, according to the company's proxy statement on Friday.

Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein and other senior employees are making up for lower bonuses in 2009 by taking more money out of investment funds set up for top executives at the firm.

Blankfein withdrew $18.7 million, while Chief Operating Officer Gary Cohn withdrew $15.1 million, the proxy said. The chief financial officer, David Viniar, took $11.5 million, and Jon Winkelried, the former president and chief operating officer, took $9.8 million.

Banks have faced sharp public criticism for employee payouts after the U.S. government bailed out banks reeling from the 2008 crisis.

Goldman, which faced the most public ire, curbed compensation costs in the fourth quarter, and the company's full-year level came in below the record $20 billion it paid out in 2007.


Read more: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/5704307.cms

[Initech]

1. Down with Goldman Sachs!!!!

I'm sick sick sick of this shit! They're making money hand over fist and we're suffering the consequences. Get rid of the whole fucking lot of them! :argh:

[Grand Taurean]

2. GoldmanSachs needs to join the list of failed banks.

[Mr. Sparkle]

3. Why aren't these bank jobs been outsourced, think of all the money we would save .

And their stock price would go up too. :thumbsup:

[provis99]

4. well, that's how free enterprise works. I won't begruge Goldman their money

They play the game the same as any other corporation out there.

[girl gone mad]

6. Except when they fail, we pay the price to save them.

[mbperrin]

9. No, they get taxpayer money and no haircut off their failed investments.

Watch Europe to see the future of predatory capitalism.

[naaman fletcher]

13. The problem is that is it not free enterprise..

If they were operating in a free market, I wouldn't care. But, they persuaded the government to bail out AIG, so that AIG could pay off it's contracts to Goldman.

[SOS]

16. $13 billion of the AIG bailout was secretly funneled to Goldman Sachs

Covering their swaps on the garbage CDOs they created and then bet against.
If that's "free enterprise", we're doomed.

[Amonester]

5. A 'neo-aristocra$$y'.

And they don't care if we all end up eating cake.

They bought the government(s).

Who will change that?

[Clyde39]

7. I've read that they feel entitled to their "bonuses"

I guess they are so used to bilking the "common man" that they see themselves in another class---deserving of millions of dollars.

[Canuckistanian]

8. Well, nobody stopped them

And if they decide to DOUBLE the bonuses next year - well, the precedent has been set.

The regulators have decided. There will be NO regulation.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

10. Friday/HC Weekend news dump. Well played, GS.

[lonestarnot]

11. Why are they allowed to continue with theft right in one's face?

[UpInArms]

12. and these criminals are whining about how small their take is this year

[unabelladonna]

14. this makes me ill

these creatures are nothing but scum. what do they produce? nothing.
anything over $10 million a year should be taxed at 99%. human beings do not need 10 million + 1 dollar to live a nice comfortable life. anything over that is piggish.

[midnight]

15. Why hasn't this failed institution being shut down like our failed schools?

Can you imagine if our teachers and students from the working class had some of the breaks that these banks had?