Goldman Sachs Has Record Earnings

Those bankers are at it again. You have to admit that they are shameless. Goldman Sachs, who was a prime beneficiary of the recent taxpayer bailout, having just paid back 10 billion dollars last month, announced they had record earnings this quarter, the highest profit in their 140-year history. Because investment banks pay out their profits in bonuses the average employee is likely to earn between 7 and 8 hundred thousand a year with between 50 to 100 earning over 20 million. This is eye popping, especially given the fact that Goldman Sachs was a leader in creating some of the exotic instruments that brought us down. Yes, they significantly benefited by our taxpayer bailout. They had made a very toxic investment with AIG of 13 billion dollars that was paid of in full from yours and my money. The leaders of Goldman Sachs are defensive about these payouts after all the say, “We pay for performance!” Of course the core question is how to we define performance? There are really two economies, people who really work  for a living, and then the whole financial economies, which is based on a lot of people analyzing risks on computers, and making huge financial bets that trickle down in ways that affect the general economy, far beyond their initial intention. I think most of us want to see performance redefined before we get too excited about rewarding people, many of whom have created so much misery.