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http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/6/20/745038/--Goldman-Sachs-to-make-record-bonus-payout-


" Goldman Sachs to make record bonus payout "
by Dburn
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Sat Jun 20, 2009 at 07:39:04 PM PDT

This of course was from The Guardian. As we struggle with record unemployment, a corrupt congress and a deepening suspicion that Goldman Sachs has far more influence on the govt than most corporations do in the aggregate we are now treated with news that the top 1% and 10% are going to add a huge pile this year.

How much do they plan to pay out. Well , as I remember a Monte Python flick a while back "a Lot".

Staff at Goldman Sachs staff can look forward to the biggest bonus payouts in the firms 140-year history after a spectacular first half of the year, sparking concern that the big investment banks which survived the credit crunch will derail financial regulation reforms.

* Dburn's diary :: ::
*

How can this possibly be? At the start of the year, the imminent collapse of the banking system was the toast talk of the town. Within 6 months Goldman, while still owing TARP funds is paying out 600 Million in bonuses from Q1 on the BS profits they made that included a omission of the billion dollar loss they suffered in Dec that apparently fell into a different year or structure. I forget which excuse. Then the heavy political pressure put the FASB board, who were told to get rid of mark to market accounting and allow banks and bank holding companies to value their assets using some sort of convoluted future cash flow model which is another way of saying "lie motherfuckers". They happily did what they were told.

A lack of competition and a surge in revenues from trading foreign currency, bonds and fixed-income products has sent profits at Goldman Sachs soaring, according to insiders at the firm.

So now in the second quarter as competition is reduced and nothing is done about regulating the derivatives market, the company makes record profits from it's trading desk. I just want to know who is paying off their derivative bets. I'm "betting" we are.

Does a feeling of nausea hit when you read this. A kind of sickness that is reflected in the Death Clock I wrote this week.

Staff in London were briefed last week on the banking and securities company's prospects and told they could look forward to bumper bonuses if, as predicted, it completed its most profitable year ever. Figures next month detailing the firms second-quarter earnings are expected to show a further jump in profits. Warren Buffett, who bought $5bn of the company's shares in January, has already made a $1bn gain on his investment.

As we struggle to make our Health Insurance payments to companies who have absolutely no intention of changing so our payments our for a 3 cent card that says "We will fuck you any chance we get". We know now they will start rolling out the heavy armor this summer as Goldman bets, that are not really bets, because they are inside the govt, on who the winners will be. They still have our TARP money even as they raise 5 Billion from the equity markets.

I believe Buffet had an option to purchase more Goldman Stock
at $115.00. As it hovers in the $140 mark, why wouldn't he?

When we are stilling seeing 10,000 foreclosures a day and three more banks fail this week-end, we find out that the 350,000 figure we heard on jobs lost last month,was not because of people hiring. It was an 220,000 "adjustment " to the total as a result of a new in the life death model or some such shit that has a spooky resemblance to the FASB adjustment from mark to markets.

No this govt isn't for sale. That happened a long time ago. It has been purchased. I hate this sinking feeling that the outcome of the so Health Care reform is preordained. An old bloody band-aid here. A rusty needle stitch there, a pat on the bottom and a exhortation to "go out and get another job" because prices are doubling to make up for the record lobbying dollars and the 2.2 billion they have spent in the last decade buying off the Govt.

Do you wonder if the various owners have conflicts over who should get what? You got Defense, Health care , Fiance and Food all jockeying for position as these less than average people in congress who don't understand anything about any of it, with few exceptions, make decisions on who gets 4 trillion dollars a year.

The economy is not improving by any stretch of the imagination, yet Goldman announces record profits even though they hold one of the highest amount of home mortgages than any bank/investment bank out there. So this 10,000 foreclosures a day doesn't effect them. As their CEO confidently said about the AIG CDSs, "we're fully hedged". Yes you are. Your hedge is your hand around our balls and it's time it was cut the fuck off.

If you look at my last diary, you'll see how they managed to get their hands around where they are and cause us to take money we didn't have to bail their asses out. No matter where you are in your belief of the Democrats, faith is starting to crumble at the overwhelming evidence that keeps making it's way into the public discourse that our system is so screwed that the concept of political parties is really "quaint".

We have seen what happens when greed goes unchecked along with the desire for more and more power. I saw it on Google a few weeks ago when a childhood friend, a life long Democrat who worked in the house, changed his worn out $161,000 job for a lobbing job that pays somewhere in
the neighborhood of 400,000+ . Why not, we are paying his 75% pension plus all his health care benefits. His client list? A whose who of all the above.

I'm get more and more convinced that we will have to just watch this go out to it's logical end. I've seen the suggestions of campaign finance reform and a bunch of other fixes that coincidentally all require congressional support. We have threatened primaries. We have dialed till our finger dropped off. We spend a inordinate amount of time obsessing that political heroes can't possibly be involved. Yet as one person said to me "silence is complicity".

Perhaps Obama came into this thinking rather naively that if he could find enough honest people from both sides to get a coalition together, inroads could be made. Naive yes. Corrupt and uncaring as he has been made out to be , no. Sorry I'm not in that crowd.

But I think we are getting close to the time when Obama needs to have a talk with the country again. He might even consider resigning to show how serious it is. I can hear the gasps and the arguments, if the diary is even read. But I'm of firm belief that no amount of protest, no amount of pleading and begging is going to get us back to a point where govt isn't an extension of large corporations. The merger is complete.

We need to hear that from someone inside and then we need to see action from inside from politicians who are part of the silent and complicit majority or minority. The alternative is to just watch as this slow motion train wreck keeps piling up the dead.

Update: Sorry for any nastiness on my part. Too much anger I guess. Going to bed. Shake it off. Thanks for reading my little diary.


Tags: Goldman Sachs, TARP, Healthcare, sigh (all tags) :: Previous Tag