Michael Lewis: America Must Rescue the Bonuses at Goldman Sachs
Check out Lewis's sarcastic and insightful comments:
... the current financial crisis is far from over. Suddenly all sorts of previously unthinkable catastrophes seem possible. ... The total collapse of the global financial system is one thing -- everyone at Davos in January saw that coming. But the shrinkage of the Goldman Sachs Group Inc. bonus pool is another. Whatever else the Treasury achieves it must know that if the employees of Goldman suffer any sort of pay cut, it will be judged to have failed. And our country may never recover. ... Last year Goldman paid its employees $20 billion, 44 percent of the firm's revenue. Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein took home $68.5 million, and many otherwise ordinary human beings took home $10 million or more. ... This inspired young people everywhere, many of whom may have privately wondered whether it was still worth their time to become investment bankers. Torn between a future in, say, the law and the manufacture of mezzanine CDOs they sucked up their courage and plunged onto Wall Street. And thank God for that: We needed the best and the brightest to get us into this mess, and we'll need the best and the brightest to get us out of it."
Comments (4)
Mike D.
Sad,but true. I saw another good one:
Why don't they just use the $700 billion to give everyone a tax rebate. Those who want to bail out Wall Street can send them their check. After all, the taxpayers are going to be paying for this anyway. At least this way, they get to decide. Isn't this the way a democracy is supposed to work?
Published: September 24, 2008 4:17 PM
maturin
That is brilliant! If it did not make me laugh I would be crying with rage.
Especially loved:
"Think of Wall Street as a poker game and Goldman as the smartest player. It's sad when you think about it this way that so much of the dumb money on Wall Street has been forced out of the game. There's no one left to play with. Just as Goldman was about to rake in its winnings and head home, the U.S. government stumbles in, fat and happy and looking for some action. I imagine the best and the brightest inside Goldman are right this moment trying to figure out how it uses the Treasury not only to sell their own crappy assets dear but also to buy other people's crappy assets cheap.
At any rate, it won't take long for Goldman Sachs to figure out how to make that $700 billion work for Goldman Sachs. This you can trust them to do. After all, Warren Buffett just did. "
Published: September 24, 2008 5:25 PM
Mark Brosius
Say brother, can you loan me a billion?
I've had some hard times lately. I went and put up my cash and my mortgage payment on a sure thing. I got 100 to 1 leverage on the FX market! It was wonderful, till it started going against me. Shoot, now my bank accounts as empty as a lawyers heart. The good news is it was personal money. Cause if it was corporate money I would have to file for reorganization and have a trustee take it all over to sort it out. Oh wait a minute, you say I don't have to do that anymore. I can just get a chunk from Sir Paulson and he doesn't even have to tell anybody about it! D*mn shame i didn't do it in a financial corp then. Think maybe i can make that corporation retroactive since nobody gonna be looking over your shoulders anyway? Well brother, can you make up your mind real quick about that billion. Don't worry about the details, we'll sort that out later. I'll pay you back real soon. I know you wouldn't bet against the American Public and hey, I'm one of them! I got a sure thing on some depressed real estate. Ought to be at least 30 to 1 leverage. I ought to be able to pay you back just as soon as prices come back.
Your Fellow American
IndyMark
Published: September 24, 2008 7:05 PM
Pete
So, people have a problem with profitable companies now?
Published: September 24, 2008 9:02 PM