If this report is true, it might be enough to trigger enough voter outrage to force Congress to finally do something serious. Goldman and some others on Wall Street like to talk about how they didn't need the TARP cash and were forced to accept it. We know that's not completely true because if Goldman didn't receive billions related to their AIG investments, they would have been in serious trouble. They accepted both the direct and indirect TARP money and then bought out the market at its bottom. These investments were practically the only profitable sectors of their businesses in 2009.
It's time to change the rules of the game with Wall Street since they can't manage to show an ounce of decency. Why it has taken Obama and his economic team so long to come around and do something other than talk is a head scratcher. The only people outside of Larry Summers' team who like this approach are on Wall Street and CNBC. Enough is enough.
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”.
