Goldman Sachs (GS) has topped its previous record of $100 million dollar trading days. According to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the bank made at least $100 million in net trading revenue on 131 days last year. Its previous record, set in 2008, was for 90 days of $100 million plus revenue.

Last year, during 263 trading days, Goldman lost money on only 19 days. Otherwise, it hit the jackpot pretty much every other day.

Thanks to strong results from its investment banking unit, JPMorgan Chase (JPM) was able to turn in a fourth quarter profit of $3.3 billion. This is a profound increase from the Q4 profit of $702 million posted in 2008.

JPM, which is the second largest bank in the U.S. in terms of assets, has performed best throughout the financial crisis, as evidenced by its substantial year-over-year increase in Q4 profit. For the last quarter of last year, JPM generated $25.2 billion in revenue.

As if the economic recession wasn't hard enough on Americans, seeing the government spend billions to bail out Wall Street has made it all even harder for the average person to take. Yes, we all want to avoid global financial collapse. But the way the government rescue of the banking industry is playing out seems to be adding insult to injury.

Here are eight recent examples:

Wall Streeters can still expect big bonuses this year
When the government agreed to bail out Wall Street, the goal was to provide funds to shore up banks' capital bases so they would start lending again. It wasn't to help them fund the bonus pool. But estimates run that as much as $70 billion will get paid out in bonuses to bankers this year. That amount equals 10% of the $700 billion bailout. Sure, the bonuses will be smaller than last year and fewer people will get them, but there will still be lots of six-figure payouts to go around.

A Goldman hot shot got the job of doling out all that money
Neel Kashkari, a 35-year-old former Goldman Sachs whiz kid who believes in free markets, is getting the job at the Treasury Department of dispersing the government's $700 billion rescue. Is he really the right person for the job? Gawker has been merciless, publishing his high school yearbook page that features a Ferrari and lyrics from the rock band Rush. But lots of observers have wondered if a seasoned vet with a little more political experience might be a better fit for the task at hand.

Hope springs eternal when you're a tattered-yet-venerable brand. Shares of The Gap, Inc. (NYSE:GPS) jumped to their highest point in two years when CNBC reported this afternoon that the company had hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE:GS). The company won't say for what, and Goldman isn't talking either. But it's unlikely the retailer hired the butchest investment bank on the Street to ask it what it thinks of its Audrey Hepburn skinny pants.

A deal in the making? Maybe. The Gap's been in a funk for a while. Holiday sales were lower than expected, and the company -- which also owns the Old Navy and Banana Republic chains, is on the record as saying it might rethink its branding strategy.

And it is a leading brand -- great name recognition -- but with really sucky fundamentals. That makes it fairly ripe for a private picking.

Gap's current team seem to be at a loss for how to recoup its retailing glory. And you don't have to be a retail analyst to see that the company has lost its way over the years. The Gap is everywhere. But have you been into one lately? Blah clothes in blah colors that are cheaply made and rather overpriced. Gap used to be known for doing the basics really well - T-shirts and jeans. Maybe a cool sweater or cute tank. Everyone fell into the Gap. What happened?

The company doesn't seem to have the answer to that question. Maybe Goldman does.

If it's November, it must be time for some mergers. Sometime back in late July, a bored investment banking VP, mad at being stuck in the office shepherding the summer associates while all the managing directors were at their houses in the Hamptons, came up with a plan. A pitch. A huge acquisition. A strategic merger! The summer associate, blinded by the glamor of writing something that would one day soon be on the desk of the CEO of Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC), or Nasdaq Stock Market Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ), or Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (NYSE:FCX), made it look fabulous. The synergies would be mind-blowing, the financial impact, in the billions.

When the managing director was wooed back from the Hamptons with the promise of a meeting with Ken Lewis at Bank of America, or the Blackstone Group's patrician Jonathan D. Gray, she realized this was a brilliant idea. And immediately saw the M&A fee, like hundreds of gallons of revenue pushing the millwheel of the group's bonus pool. The summer associate carried the dozen color copies of the pitchbook to some vastly inferior city and the CEO was convinced.

Come November, the summer associate is pouring back Yuenglings at business school, basking in the full-time job offer he received to return to the investment bank, and in the nick of time, right before the managing director checks out for the holiday season, the mergers have been launched. They're not all successful, but that's part of the fun: that bored vice president will be ever more busy and will naturally have to cancel his trip home to Maine for Thanksgiving launching a counter-offer. Here's a rundown of the successful and not-so-successful deals of the day: