Laughing all the way to the bank
SP Newsletter No.285
US Bank Goldman Sachs is on track to pay $22 billion in salaries and bonuses this year, an average of $700,000 for each of its 31,700 employees. This is more than the record payout in 2007 at the height of the financial stock market bubble.
Last year Goldman Sachs paid out over $4 billion in bonuses. 953 employees each received an eye-watering million dollars or more and 78 executives each got a stratospheric $5 million or more.
Because the bank has repaid the $10 billion bailout it took from the US government, it is no longer subject to the pay restrictions that have been imposed on the likes of Bank of America and Citigroup.
Wall Street banks are forecast to pay out a record $140 billion in bonuses this year. Given the furore over bankers’ bonuses, Goldman Sachs did concede that it would curb bonuses to some staff from next year - without giving too much detail!
At the G20 summit in Pittsburgh in September world leaders agreed to introduce rules limiting bankers’ pay and many banks, including Goldman, signed up to its implementation. They did not agree though, under pressure from the US and UK, to set caps (limits) on bonuses.
But even these ‘light touch’ regulations are proving too much. The US Federal Reserve claim that they are “…an example…and not binding…” While the head of Barclays, Marcus Aguis, believes they are “susceptible to interpretation”.
A “compensation consultant” told The New York Times: “I definitely think they should be doing something about it… They have got to arrange the chairs on the deck so that things look different”. As the NYT wryly observed, “as long as it does not involve actually cutting pay.”
After governments around the world launched the biggest bailout in history to save the financial system from complete collapse, workers are now faced with plenty of ‘caps’ - pay freezes, pay cuts, job cuts, cuts in services, etc. Goldman executives think they have a “public relations problem” and are “perplexed by the resentment directed at their bank”! Your heart bleeds for them.
Upcoming SP meetings
The Melbourne Branch of the Socialist Party meets every Wednesday 7pm at Trades Hall on the corner of Lygon & Victoria Streets Carlton South. Upcoming meetings include:
28/10/09 – Civil liberties – A socialist analysis
4/11/09 – The history of the Indonesian Communist Party
11/11/09 – 70th Anniversary of World War Two
For more information or for details of meetings in other parts of Australia contact our National Office on 03 9639 9111.
News links:
Scotland: Glasgow North East by-election
http://socialistworld.net/eng/2009/10/2101.html
Ireland: Stop the cuts, bring down the government
http://socialistworld.net/eng/2009/10/1901.html
Hong Kong: Asian migrant workers fight for their rights
http://www.chinaworker.info/en/content/news/862/
Join the Socialist Party
If you agree with what you have read in our newsletter or on our website you should consider joining SP. The Socialist Party has branches in Melbourne, Sydney, Newcastle and Perth as well as members and supporters in all other states.
We are involved in trade union work and student work. We also run community, anti-war and environmental campaigns. But most of all we want to build a party that will fight to get rid of the capitalist system, the system that is at the root of all of these problems. We fight for socialism - a system that will bring an end to wars, poverty and environmental destruction. To join SP contact our National Office on 03 9639 9111 and we will send you a membership application form.
Subscribe to ‘The Socialist’ newspaper!
Support the Socialist Party by subscribing to our monthly newspaper ‘The Socialist’. Subscription rates are only $10 per year or $20 solidarity price. You will receive 11 copies per year delivered to your door every month. You will also receive our email newsletter every week and you will know that you are supporting an organisation that is at the fore of fighting against the capitalist system. To subscribe to ‘The Socialist’ contact our National Office on 03 9639 9111 and we will send you a subscription form.
Socialist Party contact details
Melbourne: Phone Anthony on 0396399111.
Sydney: Phone Gary on 0297287727.
Newcastle: Phone Samantha on 0249681545.
Perth: Phone John on 0894020728.
Rest of Australia: Phone our National Office on 0396399111.
Rest of the world: Phone our International Office on ++ 44 20 8988 8760.
The Socialist Party is the Australian section of the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI). The CWI is organised in over 40 countries across the world.
http://www.sp.org.au
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