Goldman pay drops a fifth as profits dive 50pc

[scooterscot]

as Greece refuses to default and CDS pass there sell by date.

My heart bleeds.

Goldman pay drops a fifth as profits dive 50pc - Telegraph

The volatility and nervousness generated by Europe's debt crisis hobbled key profit engines at Goldman during the quarter.

[Jeff Maginty]

..

[AtW]

"Despite the fall in profits, Goldman said it will pay out $12.2bn in compensation, which includes bonuses, salaries and stock options, to its staff."

Shareholders get shafted again whilst bank staff help themselves to the cash register. Why have not they fired top managers for failing to keep profits up?

[Jeff Maginty]

..

[AtW]

Ok, let's look at this situation rationally - GS staff gets paid $12 bln, let's put this into perspective:

1) Market cap of whole company is 53 bln - staff gets around 20% of that in cash.

Source: GS Key Statistics | Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (The) Stock - Yahoo! Finance

2) Dividend yield - 1.34% (!)

Source: Goldman Sachs (GS) | Dividend Stock Profile | Dividend.com

3) Dividends paid - $1.93 bln last year: compare this with $12 bln staff renumeration (what %-tage of that is bonus I do not know but I get this feeling it's more than dividends paid)

Source: Goldman Spent More on Buybacks Than It Earned - Bloomberg

-----

So in conclusion 1.34% share yield, wtf is buying those shares? Well I guess we know -

4) Sharebuy back - "$6.04 billion to repurchase 47 million shares at an average price of $128.33"

Source: Goldman Spent More on Buybacks Than It Earned - Bloomberg

-----

This ain't capitalism - of anything this is more like communism where workers own the place of work, only this one is a public company traded on NYSE!

[sbakoola]

don't forget for every one of these bankers receiving £500,000 to £1 million there are 300+ staff who get little or no bonus with no job security in a very specialised job that could even de-skill them to the point where they are unemployable if they are made redundant / sacked.

I knew people at Goldmans who got told, " you are very privileged to work as this prestigious bank but we are awarding you no bonus as you've been with us 11 months only ", they promptly left.

If you are not director level in I.T. at Goldman's I don't really know what you are doing there really in terms of the salary etc. if you're in the business risk, trading even compliance then it is worth being at Goldmans though.

[fullyautomatix]

Can't understand how GS are still around.

Should have been closed back in the 1930s for the crimes they committed bringing about the Great Depression.

You are underestimating how much clout GS has over the US politicians. Most often GS CEO goes on to be the US treasury chief or something. They should have folded during the credit crunch but convinced the US govt that AIG had to be bailed out.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

Steady on - any criticism of any bonus of any kind for anyone (or anything else) in the private sector is banned on here by order of Dodgy et al.

[Spacecadet]

If their company does well, it's because they are so clever. If the company does badly, it's because of market forces or unfavourable conditions (ie: not their fault). Bankers have gotten far too big for their boots.

Change company to economy and Bankers to Labour Politicians (Or even just Gordon Brown)

[AtW]

They should have folded during the credit crunch but convinced the US govt that AIG had to be bailed out.

Aye, and they have audacity to say they were not bailed out.

Also they've turned into "proper" bank in order to qualify for Fed's loans.

They should have gone bust like Lehman along side with a few others.