Lance,

Not really. First, those that write the check answer to the board, which answers to the stockholders.

Second, the money is in the account because the customer put it there. So, while they can write it this year, if the customer doesn't like it, there will not be money to write the check next year.

Actually I agree... those who write the check have the final say. But don't take that literally. I don't mean the guy who writes the check... I mean the board.

I'm sure the board approved all the bonuses either before the checks were cut, or back when the executives were hired. Many of these kinds of "bonuses" are negotiated way back when the executive was hired.

Agreed. It's a technicality.

What I meant was...those who approve the writing of the check.

Also, I doubt Goldman will lose any clients over this. They're not exactly competing in the lowest cost provider arena. If they're making that much money, you can bet their clients are rolling in it as well.

Vin, are you serious? You think the board is in bed with the officers of the company? No way!!

I know one thing... I've got a friend who works at Goldman. I'd better get a sweet 24 year old bottle of scotch for Christmas from him this year!

Damn, even if you are a troll you can make more money
than a top copywriter in finance industry it seems lol

This discussion reminds me of several discussions that I've heard and been involved in about athletes.

You know--the guy who gets paid $16 million a year to hit a baseball. It's easy for us to sit here and say that "for $16 million a year, I'd play ball too." As much as I'd like to get paid $16 million a year to do something that I love, it simply isn't going to happen. How many of us could actually do that?

Very few.

That's why the top ballplayers get paid the big bucks. And that's why the big hitters at Goldman Sachs laugh all the way to the bank, too.
There aren't many people with their talent.

Rob Lehrer

Even more extreme is the one I heard way too many times in the 90's. "Heck... I'd get in the ring and let Mike Tyson beat the living crap out of me for 10 million dollars."

Hahaha!

I've heard that one too.

You might as well get a good life insurance policy and just have a hitman knock you off, cause if you aren't a trained fighter, after the first punch you may not live to see that 10 million!

Back in my daytrading days I took an options seminar taught by options floor traders.

It's a rarified world, let me tell ya.

(They did point out that there'd been rumors about Enron before its demise was made public, and a number of them and their friends bought puts on Enron. Unfortunately for them, their puts expired the month before Enron blew up. I guess there's some justice....

One of the things that I learned about (and considered briefly) was the occupation of floor runner. I mean, that's what they do -- run from the trading pit to the phones and back again -- and learn a whole new "sign" language to communicate. And their hourly is terrible. But they, like many others in the financial institutions, live for the year-end bonus; for the year-end bonus even the lowly-paid runner can come out smiling broadly -- in fact, there probably wouldn't be runners if that weren't true.

In Silicon Valley, even admins have made out deliciously when some companies have gone public.

When there's a lot of money sloshing back and forth, being there to pick up the spills can be lucrative. OTOH, it's very easy to suddenly think one should get more than the spills -- in comparison to what others around you are making...

There's some evidence that some of the best traders out there (and company execs!) are slightly sociopathic. I've read excerpts where there were excerpts of conversations between wealthy brokers that are downright chilling. (Think about the two principals of the bond trading firm in "Trading Places"...uh, the movie with Eddie Murphy from some years back, not the TV series... )

After the '87 crash I read widely about that era. Levine. Boesky. Milken. There were a number of good books that came out within a few years of that time.

My favorites were: "Barbarians at the Gate" -- about the leveraged buy-out (LBO) of RJR Nabisco, will convince you that execs of big companies live in a very different world than most folks. Incidentally, I hear LBOs are coming back in vogue. One of the folks in the book who comes out looking somewhat reasonable and sane went on to become head of IBM -- Lou Gretsner.

"Liar's Poker" by Michael Lewis is another fascinating look inside Wall Street.

"Den of Thieves" -- I gave this to a very non-financially oriented psychotherapist as a great introduction into what went on in the financial world during that time period. She actually read it (it's not that short) and enjoyed it. It was written by a Pulitzer-Prize winning WSJ Journalist.

Interestingly enough, I read thru some of the reviews for DoT and one of the reviewers recalls a "proverb" -- highly relevant here:

...and that was a quote from a few years back...

One of the areas I haven't read up on and would like to is about the fall of "Long Term Capital Management." (LTCM). Folks, if you don't know about LTCM (especially if you are a US citizen) -- you need to learn about the rise and fall of LTCM. Absolutely required knowledge.