If the news is to be believed, Goldman Sachs had a record profit this ‘year’ and will be paying out the largest bonuses ever. To quote the original article:
"...it seemed inconceivable that a firm owing the US government $10bn would be looking to break all-time records in 2009."
I’m completely disgusted especially since I heard this on NPR right before they start talking about how businesses in general are reducing retirement benefits for their workers. Ironically, the reason for Goldman Sachs’ huge windfall is the poor economy. The government has to use financial institutions to move bailout money to companies, even though the same places help cause the original problem in the first place. And of course, now the Goldman Sachs paid their ‘TARP’ money back, they can set their bonus level and executive pay to whatever they want.
Something is fundementally wrong with the business model in the US. The power of these financial institutions are only getting bigger as the whole economy weakens.