Goldman Sacks is back: U.S. bank posts £1.96bn profit, paving way for huge bonuses

[Gonder]

Goldman Sachs today reported a massive £1.96billion profit, paving the way for record bonus payouts to its staff.

The U.S. bank has seen net earnings for the third quarter more than treble compared to the £519.8million it made a year ago when the financial crisis was at its peak.

Its staff, 5,500 of whom work in London, will be rewarded from a share and bonus pool worth £3.3billion, which only covers the three-month period.

Across the year as a whole, workers are expected to share a whopping £14million pot - the highest in its history - and take home an average of £500,000 each.

So far, with another three months before the year comes to an end, the firm has set aside a mammoth £10.3billion for its pay and bonuses packages.

This is a 46 per cent hike in compensation and benefits pool during the first nine months of the year.

The figures came after fellow U.S. banking giant JP Morgan posted an unexpected six-fold surge in profits yesterday.

This leaves its estimated 5,500 UK workers in line for an average of nearly £300,000 each in pay and bonuses.

The revival of the banking bonus gravy train will alarm the Government, which has pledged to end the profligate pay that sowed the seeds of the credit crunch and left many families struggling.

a bond-trading bonanza lay behind JP Morgan's 581 per cent year-on-year increase in third-quarter profits.

The hefty £2.3billion profit between July and September - up from just £330million the year before - puts staff on track for an average reward package of £295,000.

Profits at JP Morgan's investment banking division more than doubled to £1.1billion over the period and a further £1.8billion was set aside for its pay pool.

However, the lavish pay-outs will be trumped by Goldman Sachs whose third-quarter earnings outstripped experts who had forecast they would be around £1.5billion.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1220506/Gravy-train-bankers-JP-Morgan-plans-bonus-bonanza-quarterly-2-3bn-profit.html

[Inuhanyou]

That's why we're on our way for Financial regulation after healthcare is done :hurr Its not rocket science to see these guys need to be curtailed

Thing is how can we make it so that this financial reformation actually has padlocks on it and sealed so that we're going up

[narutosimpson]

goldman sachs is back homeboy! after manipulating every financial move the govt and private sector has made over the last few years and their faster than the market trading, they are back from the smoky back rooms to tell us they made lots of money! :pimp

[Ennoea]

Time to start paying back to the govt mofo.

[Dark Uchiha]

some times i wonder if these bankers fear nothing.

its like being a dope dealer or a gang member that takes sunday morning walks.

they better pay back the money they owe us or you might have to put "banker" as a hazardous job.

[narutosimpson]

^ i think they did pay that money back, completely.

[Dark Uchiha]

^ i think they did pay that money back, completely.

really?..... :wth

[amazingfunksta]

See, if the company fails... I see no need to bail them out.

If they can pass out bonuses and stay in business, then that's fine for them... However, if they fail in other places where that money would have been needed, then I would have no sympathy for them and I would demand that the government NOT use our money to bail them out.

However, once again, people band together to rally against those eeeevil profits :-P.

If they've paid back the government, then I have no problem with them passing out bonuses as long as they aren't running the company into the ground. And even if they do, then that's their own damned fault and they should fail just like any other business instead of getting special privileges and getting bailed out.

[Dark Uchiha]

the government needs to do something about too big to fail business.

need to ban companies from insurance and banks into one thing. i.e restoring the Glass-Steagall Act

[1mmortal 1tachi]

I wonder how much of it is attributable to their HFT trading..

[Dark Uchiha]

I wonder how much of it is attributable to their HFT trading..

nothing will get regulated in the way it should suppose to unless someone goes in there and does a columbine action.

greed is a fuckn albatross on society.

[amazingfunksta]

greed is a fuckn albatross on society.

When people get unsustainably greedy, they'll ultimately fail (Take a look at Bernie Madoff). Why should everybody suffer because of the mistakes of a few?

Keep in mind that the government is currently running the largest Ponzi scheme of all time. Social Security is a great example of this... Every time you're paid at work, the government invests some of your money into social security, where it's supposed to collect interest until you retire and receive your social security checks. In the meantime, your money is being spent by the government and an IOU is put in its place. As a result of this, there is now a massive liability funding shortfall of... oh... somewhere around 13.6 trillion dollars.

It's a ponzi scheme, because we'll more than likely never see a return on our investment, while the government uses our money to fund the retirees.... A Ponzi Scheme... Except our politicians aren't rotting in jail like Bernie Madoff is. You would be wise not to trust government with regulating companies. At least if a company runs a ponzi scheme, it fails and crashes, leaving room for a better company to takes its place.

[Dark Uchiha]

When people get unsustainably greedy, they'll ultimately fail (Take a look at Bernie Madoff). Why should everybody suffer because of the mistakes of a few?

Keep in mind that the government is currently running the largest Ponzi scheme of all time. Social Security is a great example of this... Every time you're paid at work, the government invests some of your money into social security, where it's supposed to collect interest until you retire and receive your social security checks. In the meantime, your money is being spent by the government and an IOU is put in its place. As a result of this, there is now a massive liability funding shortfall of... oh... somewhere around 13.6 trillion dollars.

It's a ponzi scheme, because we'll more than likely never see a return on our investment, while the government uses our money to fund the retirees.... A Ponzi Scheme... Except our politicians aren't rotting in jail like Bernie Madoff is. You would be wise not to trust government with regulating companies. At least if a company runs a ponzi scheme, it fails and crashes, leaving room for a better company to takes its place.

need a third party for regulation

[hyakku]

As long as they pay the money back (which they already have started doing) with the extra owed I don't care what they do what their money, it's their money. Good for them.

[The Space Cowboy]

1.96 billion dollar profits? Turns out owning the Fed. and the Treasury dept. is good for business.

[Shinigami Perv]

Of course they're going to be profitable after we bailed out AIG and they funneled the money to Goldman; if we hadn't, they'd have huge losses.

[The Space Cowboy]

Of course they're going to be profitable after we bailed out AIG and they funneled the money to Goldman; if we hadn't, they'd have huge losses.

Yeah. They had 20 billion dollars of exposure to AIG's failure.

[Shinigami Perv]

Yeah. They had 20 billion dollars of exposure to AIG's failure.

Now, watch them trumpet Goldman's profits of "proof" they don't need bailout money to be profitable. :hoho And also it will be the rationale behind the bonuses: "uh, we made this money legitimately without govt. interference, blahblahblah"

So predictable.

[dummy plug]

whoa big numbers!!!!

[Wesley]

Don't they have an enormous debt they have to pay off first?

[fireofthewill]

^I'm pretty sure Goldman Sachs remained relatively unscathed throughout the financial crisis. They even managed to post a profit in the first few months, even while everybody else was going bankrupt. I think they took some bailout money, but I don't think they ever needed it; the government was just handing it out like candy, and they decided "Fuck it, why not." Anyways, the money's already paid back, or they wouldn't be allowed to give bonuses, so I don't really care.