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Goldman Hustles Investors on Soaring Bonuses

Bank privately meeting with large shareholders to shore up support

By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff

Posted Dec 3, 2009 7:40 AM CST

(Newser) – Goldman Sachs has been holding private meetings with its top shareholders in an effort to stave off proposals that would reign in its ginormous bonuses. It’s a first for Goldman, which normally doesn’t feel compelled to justify its pay, no matter the public outcry. But shareholders have the power to curtail that compensation, and have already submitted five proposals to do so, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Goldman’s pay pool is now at record highs, set to lavish an average $700,000 on each employee this year. In the meetings, high-ranking Goldman officials have tried to explain those figures in the context of the firm’s performance, and convince them not to vote for the proposals. A spokesman says the company is “puzzled” at the suggestion that shareholders want compensation reduced, maintaining that feedback has been positive.

Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, leaves the financial company's headquarters, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2009 in New York.
Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, leaves the financial company's headquarters, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2009 in New York.   (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
In this Feb. 11, 2009 file photo, Goldman's Lloyd C. Blankfein, left, and JPMorgan Chase's James Dimon testify on Capitol Hill  before the House Financial Services Committee.
In this Feb. 11, 2009 file photo, Goldman's Lloyd C. Blankfein, left, and JPMorgan Chase's James Dimon testify on Capitol Hill before the House Financial Services Committee.   (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, file)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 32 comments
bewilderbeast
Dec 10, 2009 11:04 AM CST
The law that commands you to now eat your mouse, hybrid, is the one that allowed "leveraging". What you think is a million dollars of (your heroes) Goldman Sachs' worth, is only a thousand dollars of real assets. The rest is hot air (and payoffs and bonusses).
bewilderbeast
Dec 10, 2009 11:00 AM CST
hybrid they sold me nothing because I don't buy their lies. But they sold a lot of people totally worthless "assets" for a lot of money and took their large profits and dumped the junk on others. And the fact that what they did was "legal" is only so because they engineered the laws that allowed the lies. Do you think for one moment that your "legislators" know what the hell the laws they "pass" really mean? They get lobbied, they get bought, they pass whatever they are told to. We need regulation to stop the wholesale transfer of private (and state) assets into the hands of fewer and fewer ultra-wealthy individuals. No honest broker would mind regulation, it's the thieves who get suckers like you and DDiggler to fight their battles for them. Unless you are one of the ultra-wealthy it is not in your interests for these guys to operate as freely as they do. The "wealth" they create is an illusion (other than the commissions in real money which they rake off for themselves).
Pragmaticrealism
Dec 4, 2009 6:55 AM CST
A list of failed banks: http://www.fdic.gov/bank/indiv...

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