Goldman Sachs Board Rejects Shareholder Demands on Pay Restrictions
No surprise this request from Goldman shareholders fell on deaf ears. This issue will only be settled in the courts. Goldman has a reputation of lavish compensation and that creates an environment that makes smart people who want to work hard and make oddles of cash. That could be the reason why the board didn’t want to do anything that could possible tarnish that image regardless of the the public opinion is off their compensation.
Wall Street Journal - Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said its board of directors rejected demands from shareholders that the investment bank investigate excessive compensation and take steps to recoup some awards given to executives.
The company reported in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it received several letters from shareholders asking for the firm to revamp the way it pays out salaries, benefits and compensation. Goldman’s board “rejected the demands,” according to the filing.
Popularity: 1%
Feinberg Says He Spoke With Goldman Sachs CEO About Compensation Plans
It is good we are seeing more compensation that is based on performance of the stock of a firm and not large cash payments that could encourage one-time bumps in earnings for bonuses even if they are putting the firm into more risk. Over time this will also help shareholders because everyones goals will be much more aligned and investors can have more confidence investing in these firms for the long-term, opposed to speculating.
Bloomberg - Kenneth Feinberg, the U.S. special master on executive compensation, said Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein consulted with him on the firm’s pay plans and adopted his “prescriptions.”
Popularity: 1%
Goldman Sachs Posts Nearly $5 Billion In Profit While Restrains Compensation In Q4
Quite a good quarter for the Goldman Sachs boys. With the amount of bailout they got through AIG via the treasury, you better be able to make money. We have a huge swing in the markets in 2009 and GS was flush with cash and was able to deploy it and ride the wave up. I do like they are trying compensation packages to stocks and not cash so the employees goals are aligned with long-term profitability of the firm.
I personally have no problem with a investment bank being profitably, but if we are going to have them unregulated, we need to let them fail when they get to greedy and lets them be rewarded by our markets when they are more clever than the rest, THAT is real capitalism.
New York - Dow Jones - Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) on Thursday delivered its richest quarterly profit in the investment bank’s 140-year history, driven in part because it restrained compensation amid a public outcry about excessive pay.
Popularity: 1%
Goldman Sachs Blankfein Says He Wasn’t Asked to Take AIG Discount on Swaps
What a bombshell! Now we know the fix was in, Treasury did not even bother to offer a discount to AIG’s counter-parties. So it was a de facto bailout of Goldman Sachs among other firms and foreign banks visa-vi the U.S. taxpayer. What is even better about this bailout is that is didn’t fall under TARP restrictions, didn’t need to be paid back and Goldman will be paying huge bonuses this year with the taxpayers money.
Also, unlike the commercial banks, I doubt we would of went over the edge if they failed. Yes, investment banks are important and they make markets but we would of been able to survive without bailing them out. That’s capitalism, winner succeed and losers fail. I think Mr. Geithner will have some explaining to do if not having to resign over the fallout.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein testified that he was never asked by U.S. regulators to accept a discount on investment contracts his firm had with American International Group Inc.
Popularity: 1%
4 U.S. Banks Repay $54.7 Billion in Tarp Bailout Funds
This is a good sign, I am glad to see these fund get repaid back. This is going to create pressure on the banks that do not have the ability to repay these government loans. In a sense, this has now separated the banks into two categories (TARPed and Non-TARPed) and one categoery is clearly stronger than the other. This should let the market now reward or punish the good and bad banks we have.
If you can not repay these loans then clearly you are currently in a weaker position than your rivals. In the business of banking, 95% of the business is based on “trust” and “confidence” and when you are in short supply of both, then you usually go out of business. I want too see only strong and prudent banks surviving. I love good banks and despise bad ones. In all my history on banking I have read, this is the way of the world and it should not change now.
News (Bloomberg):
JPMorgan Chase & Co. and four of the nation’s largest banks repaid $54.7 billion to the U.S. Treasury’s bailout fund in a step toward ridding themselves of government restrictions on lending and pay.
Popularity: 1%
Goldman Sachs raises $5.5 billion for pension and endowment asset purchases
Please bring your attention to the FACT that they will be purchasing assets from pensions and endowments with this $5.5 billion dollars. I would like to know if all the money came from private investors or company funds. First off, Goldman Sachs did take TARP bailout money so it makes me wonder if this is a hidden bailout for the pensions and endowments that were either steered or willing invested in pretty shady financial vehicles.
Or, is this what is to come, with the U.S. taxpayer bailing out all these banks, now they have this huge advantage by getting fresh cash from the Fed & Treasury because asset prices are so depressed. I would like to know more about what assets these funds are offloading. Something does not smell right here.
News (Bloomberg):
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised a fund with about $5.5 billion in capital commitments to buy private-equity assets on the secondary market from endowments and pensions that have been stung by losses.
Popularity: 1%
Goldman Sachs’ Blankfein wants Mark-to-Market rule to stay put
We completely agree with Mr. Blankfein’s opinion. Just because people decided to overvalue assets to such excesses does not mean when things don’t go their way, we should abandon our accounting standards to preserve mal-investment. This just shows that our current banking system is in fact “insolvent” and we have resulted to jiggering with our accounting methods to keep these banks and other financial institutions from going bust.
We should make everyone come clean with their assets and liabilities ASAP and if you are solvent then we should assist them with taking over the good assets and if your insolvent, then your bond and shareholders takes the losses along with the bad assets. Yes, we should let bad banks go under. This is what will bring stability and confidence to the markets. We are just prolonging our crisis and making it worse trying to bailout bad banks that made bad decisions when they were GREEDY.
News:
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein said the financial industry shouldn’t abandon the “mark-to-market” accounting rules that some banks blame for aggravating global economic woes.
The rules, which require banks to book profits or losses when asset values rise or fall, should be even more rigorous, Blankfein wrote in an op-ed piece published yesterday on the Financial Times’s Web site. New York-based Goldman’s adherence to the practice “was a key contributor to our decision to reduce risk relatively early” in the credit crisis, he wrote.
Popularity: 1%