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You are here: Home / Economics / Free Markets Solve Everything / Down and Out in Water Mill

Down and Out in Water Mill

by John Cole|  October 18, 20117:49 pm| 29 Comments

This post is in: Free Markets Solve Everything

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This breaks my heart:

Goldman Sachs, weighed down by problems in its private equity portfolio and the broader global economic woes, reported a loss of $428 million, compared with a $1.7 billion profit a year ago.

It’s only the second quarterly loss for Goldman since the investment bank went public in 1999.

The company reported a loss of 84 cents a share, worse than analysts’ predictions of a loss of 16 cents, according to Thomson Reuters.

But don’t worry, they are still getting by:

The quarterly loss is likely to translate into smaller bonuses for Goldman’s roughly 30,000 employees. So far this year, the firm set aside $10.01 billion to pay compensation and benefits, down 24 percent for the same period in 2010. Firms accrue compensation all year and pay it out in the fourth quarter.

While Goldman has set less money aside to pay employees, the ratio of compensation and benefits to net revenue in the third quarter was 44 percent, in line with previous accruals. Goldman, like most Wall Street firms, has been cutting staff in recent months. At the end of the third quarter, it had 34,200 employees, down 1,300, or nearly 4 percent, from just three months ago.

As we all know, these Wall Street guys eat what they kill, so expect those 1,300 former Goldman employees to be taking easy jobs like teaching and coaching little league baseball.

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Reader Interactions

29Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    October 18, 2011 at 7:52 pm

    Clearly, what they need is some deregulation.

  2. 2.

    lamh34

    October 18, 2011 at 7:53 pm

    speakin’ of Wall STreet guys, to all the Mass. peeps, was Romney as tone deaf at Gov?

  3. 3.

    greg

    October 18, 2011 at 7:53 pm

    $10 billion dollars set aside, for 34,200 employees, is a minuscule average of $292,397 per person. Those poor, poor employees.

  4. 4.

    Bubblegum Tate

    October 18, 2011 at 7:55 pm

    O/T: Tea Party Nation urges businesses to stop hiring in order to hurt Obama.

    So are we allowed to take it as a given that Republicans are deliberately sabotaging the economy yet?

  5. 5.

    piratedan

    October 18, 2011 at 7:58 pm

    @greg: hey now, fucking over the world economy for fun and profit is labor intensive work, I’m very sure that those bonuses were earned with 70 hour workweeks, doing what they can to inspire the remainder of Americans who actually build things and provide services to others to greater heights as they bask in the glow of their betters financial success. It’s shared sacrifice, I lose 500k in bonuses and you lose your entire livelihood kinda thing.

  6. 6.

    JPL

    October 18, 2011 at 8:00 pm

    John, Did you join the fun on Pretentious Tom’s thread below?

  7. 7.

    Jay in Oregon

    October 18, 2011 at 8:01 pm

    Sightly OT: Professional asshole Anthony Bologna punished for pepper-spray issue involving OWS protesters. Brace yourselves…

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/18/occupy-wall-street-pepper-spray-officer?CMP=twt_fd

    [A source with knowledge of the investigation] says an internal New York Police Department review found that Bologna violated department standards on pepper spray use.
    __
    He faces internal discipline of a loss of vacation time. He may choose to appeal the decision.

  8. 8.

    Short Bus Bully

    October 18, 2011 at 8:01 pm

    My god! You mean there are now 1300 former Goldman Sachs Galtian wunderkind hunter/killers on the loose and no one told me? How the fuck am I ever supposed to compete with them? Please Obama, make the ubermen slow down so I can keep up!

    /weeps in corner

    /snark off

    Fuck these asshats.

  9. 9.

    lacp

    October 18, 2011 at 8:02 pm

    @Bubblegum Tate: That needs to be broadcast far and wide toot sweet – I’m sure all those unemployed and under-employed folks would be happy to take it in the shorts if they can support the Job Creators in their battle with the Islamomarxist Kenyan.

  10. 10.

    cathyx

    October 18, 2011 at 8:08 pm

    Expect the former employees to show up at the OWS protests.

  11. 11.

    Bill T.

    October 18, 2011 at 8:09 pm

    Goldman Sachs can always ask the “too big to fail” banks for a bailout, especially since they had such a profitable 3rd quarter.

  12. 12.

    Urza

    October 18, 2011 at 8:10 pm

    Now, correct me if i’m wrong, cause I know this sounds crazy, but couldn’t you totally eliminate that loss by just taking it out of the bonuses. Heck, shrink them just a bit more than that $428 million and you can totally make a profit, which is what they’re supposedly about, making money for shareholders and not just sucking up massive bonuses right.

  13. 13.

    BBA

    October 18, 2011 at 8:11 pm

    I’m surprised Goldman didn’t bother with the accounting tricks. Certainly BoA and Citi are in far more trouble but managed to cook the books just enough to declare a profit.

  14. 14.

    WereBear

    October 18, 2011 at 8:11 pm

    So do they drop the potentially laid off into a pit and those who crawl out stay another quarter? These are the famous predatory Financialis Sapiens , right?

  15. 15.

    cathyx

    October 18, 2011 at 8:18 pm

    @Urza: Not give bonuses? Is this a joke? They work hard all year and you expect them to not get a bonus? Please!

  16. 16.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    October 18, 2011 at 8:22 pm

    No wonder bankers hate bank robbers; they are stealing the money they are stealing! A normal business that loses money looks to find a solution that actually saves the business. Not so in banking and finance, they pay out bonuses even when they lose money.

    In fact, if they took some of the bonus money, lets say 10% of it, and folded it back into the business then they would be reporting a profit for the quarter. How is this not a crime? I see it as they are skimming off their cut, no matter the results, and sticking the shareholders and customers with the bill.

    RICO, where are you?

  17. 17.

    Amir Khalid

    October 18, 2011 at 8:22 pm

    @Urza:
    No, no, no. You should look at things the way Goldman Sachs’ top performers do: “If we don’t get the bonuses they’re accustomed to, we’re totally going to leave and take our moneymaking talents where we’ll be appreciated, and then Goldman Sachs will be sorry! You just wait and see!” (Pout.)

  18. 18.

    Bubblegum Tate

    October 18, 2011 at 8:28 pm

    @lacp:

    I agree.

    Honestly, I’m kind of astounded they would be that brazen about it, but here they are, being that brazen about it. They want the entire country to cut off its nose to spite its Kenyan Soshulist Mooslim face.

  19. 19.

    Downpuppy

    October 18, 2011 at 8:33 pm

    Since Oracle’s & Sun’s Boards of Directors weren’t sued into extinction, Goldman’s is probably safe.

    But their shareholders are the biggest suckers in the world. Even in a good year, the bonus pool is 20x profits.

  20. 20.

    PurpleGirl

    October 18, 2011 at 8:43 pm

    @greg: I think we can safely assume that a secretary/administrative assistant or mailroom guy didn’t get an equal share with a senior trader or managing partner.

  21. 21.

    maya

    October 18, 2011 at 10:15 pm

    I worked on the street ’69-’74. It has always been the custom to pay out bonuses providing there was a profit. In ’69 we had a recession, but our firm managed to turn a small profit. Bonuses for the little guys amounted to an Xmas party and a couple of hundred. AEs, (account execs) got a few thousand. What’s going on now is unrecognizable and as far as them packing up and heading somewhere else if those huge bonuses were not given, I’m puzzled.. where would they go… Prudential Securities?

  22. 22.

    El Cid

    October 18, 2011 at 10:38 pm

    I’ve usually gotten a Christmas bonus. Only not when the company had been recently indebted and not enough to purchase a yacht and hire a crew.

  23. 23.

    BBA

    October 18, 2011 at 10:58 pm

    In most of the world a “bonus” is a supplement to one’s salary. On Wall Street, the “bonus” is the main component of one’s compensation, much larger than the “salary” (although the salaries are also quite generous by non-Wall Street standards).

    Lloyd Blankfein once said he’d pay everyone at Goldman salaries of $0 if he could. I think that was a joke. Probably.

  24. 24.

    mclaren

    October 18, 2011 at 11:31 pm

    So those former Goldman Sachs employees are going to kill and eat students and little league players?

    Wow. Somebody call in SWAT.

  25. 25.

    Sloegin

    October 19, 2011 at 12:38 am

    Nahh, those 1300 are all gonna go Galt’s Gulch on us. Couple dozen to dig that copper mine, a score or so buildin’ that fab railroad, and some of the smart boyz fiddlin with metallurgy and perpetual motion machines.

    I’m sure the rest will do all sorts of many manly empowering things creating wealth, yep. No moochers in that lot.

  26. 26.

    William Hurley

    October 19, 2011 at 1:48 am

    Be wary of earnings reports – any and all of them – as they are more highly engineered to perform specific tasks than are (were) space-shuttle components.

    A loss today means 3 months of Goldie’s CEO Blankfein whining about too many regs, too much uncertainty and the “disincentivization” that is the tax code.

    Expect jumbo, home run quality earnings to be engineered for next quarter’s issuance of business fiction with numbers from Goldie et al.

    These “earnings” may “give” Blankfein the cover he wants to play cash hungry OFA’ers for fools.

  27. 27.

    Jebediah

    October 19, 2011 at 3:53 am

    @Short Bus Bully:

    My god! You mean there are now 1300 former Goldman Sachs Galtian wunderkind hunter/killers on the loose and no one told me?

    I would pay money to see one of these “we’ll take YOUR jerbs” supermen in front of a class of 32 2nd graders. You eat what you kill? Fine. This year’s salary will be based entirely on the improvement in your students’ test scores.
    I would also pay money to watch job interviews… “I won’t teach gym for less then $500K plus bonus…”

  28. 28.

    TenguPhule

    October 19, 2011 at 5:59 am

    My god! You mean there are now 1300 former Goldman Sachs Galtian wunderkind hunter/killers on the loose and no one told me?

    Yes, think of the trophies to be collected!

    Mark them for bagging and tagging.

    A stuffed and mounted ex-banker on the wall would be just the thing to make my wall look good.

  29. 29.

    bob h

    October 19, 2011 at 6:57 am

    The idea that Masters of the Universe might take a slightly smaller, but still exorbitant bonus in order to save the jobs of their colleagues apparently is not even raised.

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