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December 21, 2007
The Facts
CEO’s of some of the biggest financial institutes get some wonderful Christmas presents. Goldman Sachs Chairman and CEO Lloyd Blankfein will take home nearly $68 million in restricted stock, options and cash, making it the largest bonus ever given to a Wall Street CEO. $26.8 million was in cash. Many other companies followed suit. However, there were a couple that elected not to issue bonus’s this year. You can go here to read a complete report.
My View
Goldman Sachs and others have participated in a lot of deals over the past several years that many people term as “shady”. Many of them have laid off a lot of workers in order to reach goals that would net these kinds of paydays for CEO’s. Goldman Sachs has been accused of being a major cause of the high oil prices we have today. As traders of oil, there is a lot of truth in that statement. It is no secret that oil traders are really at the core of the 30-40 percent rise in crude oil prices over the past ninety days. Goldman Sachs is also rumored to be the biggest holder of produced oil, thus giving them the reputation of being the biggest oil company in the world.
In view of the latest crisis in the banking and lending institutes, it makes one wonder how they can afford these kinds of bonus’; especially when many of them have requested help from our tax money. However, these bonus’ are often negotiated with a condition that the bonus’ will be paid regardless of the financial situation of the company. But the main problem I see here is how can a single person really be important enough to the company to command these kinds of benefits? In most cases, I suspect that if the rank & file employees were asked, they wouldn’t hesitate to tell you “no”. But none of these things matter. CEO’s of several companies sit on the boards of each others company, and a particular CEO’s contract is negotiated and approved based on his willingness to do the same for the other CEO’s as a board member of their company.
One of my web sites spends a lot of time talking about greed and corruption. I can think of no better example of why this is a real and serious issue. So the next time you are having a financial problem not of your making, take a look at the happy smiling face above; it should make you feel good that he and others like him does not have your problem.
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