Absurb Story of the Day

Score one for the British media. The Times somehow floats the idea that Goldman’s CEO Lloyd Blankfein is going to get a $100 million bonus. Not only is this nuts, there’s absolutely zero evidence for it. Still, the Times runs with their story which is the potential backlash against a fairy tale.

Goldman Sachs, the world’s richest investment bank, is facing a potential political storm over how much it pays its chief executive, Lloyd Blankfein.
Bankers in Davos for the World Economic Forum (WEF) told The Times they understood that Mr Blankfein and other top Goldman bankers outside Britain were set to receive some of the bank’s biggest-ever payouts, in defiance of President Obama’s attempt to shame banks into cutting bonuses. “This is Lloyd thumbing his nose at Obama,” said a banker at one of Goldman’s rivals. (That’s the kind of quote journalists kill for.)
Mr Blankfein took home his biggest bonus so far in 2007, when he was paid $67.9 million. Goldman’s profits last year were $1.8 billion higher than in 2007. This leaves the bank with a justification to pay him even more although payouts will be made in shares rather than cash to make them more politically palatable. Some rival bankers claim Mr Blankfein could receive up to $100 million, though even a much lower figure could prove politically explosive. (Who the hell is “some rival banker”? How on earth did they get that number?)
Lucas van Praag, Goldman’s spokesman, said:”Although the Board has yet to detemine executive compensation, given everything we have said and done on the subject, the idea that the directors would award Lloyd Blankfein $100 million, or anything close to it, beggars belief.”

In other news, the editors of the Times could potentially drown a bag of cats this afternoon. According to their unnamed business rivals, this would hurt the Times‘ image.

Posted by on February 1st, 2010 at 11:45 am


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