Goldman Sachs sets aside $16.8 billion for bonuses

Posted Oct 16th 2009 10:00AM by Connie Madon
Filed under: Earnings Reports, Employees, Goldman Sachs Group (GS)

Just amazing! Goldman Sachs has set aside $16.8 billion for employee bonuses. This amounts to 43% of net earnings for pay and benefits, and could go as high as $20 billion.

With tongue in cheek, Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS) is not faring as well as it did last year when it set aside 50% of net earnings for pay and benefits. Nevertheless, each employee will receive an average of $630,000, rivaling its 2007 record!

Goldman's chief financial officer, David Viniar told reporters: "We are very focused on what is going on in the world," Reuters reported. "We are focused on the economic climate," he added, calling this year's performance "fantastic" in light of the economic downturn.

Clearly, Goldman is top of the heap when it comes to banking. Its earnings are just short of spectacular. Its trading programs are the best in the business, bar none. It has rigid standards for the amount of risk it exposes the bank on each and every trade.

To sum up, Goldman's attitude could be said in these words: "If you've got it, flaunt it" and Goldman makes no bones about flaunting it.

Should the U.S. treasury rein in bank bonuses?

Tags: Goldman Sachs bonuses, GoldmanSachsBonuses, gs, inthenews

Print this

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

10-16-2009 @ 10:50AM

buddy7768 said...

government sachs gets bonuses i.e. tax dollars for being the shill in driving the market up. kind of like going to the casino with counterfeit money and having the dealer let you win . what bs. who do you know thats buying stock for whats left of thier retirement portfolio?.... exactly!