The Fat Man Skips Lunch
It seems that Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein has responded to the financial crisis by sacrificing his own bonus as a gesture of solidarity to the millions of taxpayers who bailed out his employer.
Goldman Sachs, which received a $10 billion from through the troubled relief asset program this quarter, hit a public relations quagmire after news leaked out that the firm planned to compensate its senior executives with healthy bonuses this year.
Blankfein this weekend attempted to shut down the firm’s by publicly refusing to gorge himself at the public trough and scrape by on a $600,000 base salary. The same resolution to forego a bonus this year will be upheld by six of his highly compensated peers at Goldman Sachs.
This generous offer comes on the heels of a $68 million bonus awarded to Blankfein in 2007 and the prospect of a windfall in 2009.
What the press fails to grasp is that Blankfein may be in no position to demand a bonus this year. Goldman’s stock is down about 60% this year and the firm’s role in pushing flawed structured credit investments that contributed to credit crisis has yet to be determined.
Foregoing an undeserved bonus was a publicity masterstroke for Blankfein and his colleagues, who are also under scrutiny for the firm’s close ties with its alumni in the Treasury who crafted a problematic and potentially self-serving bailout plan.
Blankfein took one for the team but the payoff in terms of averted probes and diluted regulation may far outweigh his short-term costs.
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17. November 2008 at :
Mr. Blankfein should take the 68 million from 2007, buy himself an island in some hidden corner of the world and await his indictment. I suspect that if the market falls anywhere near where it seems to be heading a lot of the leaders of the market are going to have to answer to the attorney general or the district attorney. Someone is going to burn for what has happened to the country and it isn’t likely that members of congress will be taken to the stake. He should eat well, because there are no between meal snacks in Lewiston.