Tuesday, January 12, 2010

THE WALL STREET BONUS SWEEPS WEEK

Get ready for the slap in the face you've been expecting. I say that because we all know that the execs on Wall Street havent learned nor care to understand that the public bailed them out and dont want the practice of mega-bonuses going out to those who are most responsible.

Goldman Sachs top traders and bankers stand to earn at least $10 million each with a total payout of around $20 Billion. This is just one of the many firms WE made whole during the fiscal crisis of 2008 & 2009. With the damage done, and two Presidents to blame, the American taxpayer wants answers. We want answers!

I stumbled upon a Tweet from ABC News with a list of their top ten compensatory members. So I swiped the list:

TRAIDERS:

Pierre-Henri Flamand is a French-born 39-year-old who was rumored to have been paid $100 million a few years ago. Flamand is the London-based global head of Goldman's purely proprietary trading group, Sachs Principal Strategies.

Ashok Varadhan, one of Goldman's top fixed-income guns, (who made partner in 2002 at age 29), is the global head of foreign exchange trading in North America.

David Heller joined Goldman in Asia in the late 1980s. He has risen within the firm, becoming the head of global equity a few years ago. Last year, he was named co-head of the Securities Division. Goldman's equities division delivered $2.8 billion in revenues in the third quarter alone.

Ed Eisler
is head of interest rate trading, which is part of Goldman's most profitable division, Fixed Income Commodities and Currency. The FICC group contributed the lion's share of the firm's $24 billion in trading revenues recorded through the first nine months of the year.


MONEY MANAGERS:

Raanan Agus, 41-year-old manager of Goldman Sachs Investment Partners, a $7 billion hedge fund created at the start of 2008. Agus, a world-class chess enthusiast who is known to prefer Honda minivans to Hummers, runs the GSIP fund within Goldman's asset management division, which has nearly $1 trillion under management.

Marc Spilker
, who helps run Goldman's entire massive investment management business. Spilker's area produces nearly $1 billion in revenues each quarter.

SALESPEOPLE:

Harvey Schwartz, Goldman's head of global sales and a co-head of the firm's securities division.

Isabelle Ealet, London-based global head of commodities and who runs the sales team for this hugely successful trading operation. She ranks No. 32 on Fortune magazine's list of the most powerful women in business.

BANKERS:

Gordon Dyal, global head of mergers and acquisitions. According to Deallogic, Goldman ranked No.1 in global M&A transactions through the first three-quarters of the year. Its investment banking division had produced $3.2 billion in net revenue. said one Wall Street headhunter.

Richard Friedman
, 51-year-old head of Goldman's merchant banking division. A few years ago he helped pull off the historic initial public offering of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. Goldman has maintained a modest investment stake in ICBC, which continues to produce eye-popping returns -- ICBC shares yielded Goldman $1.1 billion worth of revenue through the first nine months of 2009.

In the next few days, you may catch some of the first public hearings of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, You'll get the chance to hear CEO Lloyd Blankfein try to explain the current fiscal solvency of Goldman Sachs without really touching on the pending pay-outs WE are about to give these execs. I don't have to remind you that Blankfein, took the reins of the company after his predecessor Hank Paulson, became treasury secretary in the Bush administration.

You may ask why I type WE when I speak of those responsible for saving these institutions. Well that's because Goldman was among a slew of banks that took TARP funds in 2008. I know everyone has heard all the rumblings of criticism that Goldman made billions on the back of the American taxpayer. The reason to be angry is well founded, so don't feel you are alone when you read and hear these reports of mega-bonuses in weeks to come.

It gives a whole new reason to ask;
"WHAT'S IN YOUR WALLET?"

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

This just posted on the Huffington...President Obama will unveil on Thursday a proposed levy on the nation's biggest financial firms structured not just to repay taxpayers for the bank bailout, but to recoup some of the public subsidy that "too big to fail" banks have enjoyed on account of their implicit government backstop.

How do you think this will help the taxpayers and public perception?

Anonymous said...

There is a disconnect between "too big to fail" and bad business practice. Just because it is in the public's best interest that these money houses do not fail, it is also in the public interest that the poor management that brought these companies to the brink are changed. Just because they have fattened up at our table, does not give them the right to continue gorging themseves once they broke our chairs.

Anonymous said...

I bet the State of New York political leaders are looking forward to the state income tax revenue they are going to receive as a result of those big bonuses.

Anonymous said...

I am reminded of a famous quote during the reign of Marie Antoinette, "Just let them eat cake" when inquired about the poor going hungry.This seems to be the mentality of big corporate boards/managers. Very insensitive to the plight of american taxpayer.
And we all know the results of her statement.......