Goldman Sachs Justifies Outrageous Salaries (GS)

Goldman Sachs' (NYSE:GS) CEO explained to the public that they pay more because their employees are more productive and just downright special. Quote of the Year --"What people fail to mention is that net income generated per head is a multiple of our peer average. The people of Goldman Sachs are among the most productive in the world." Show me the Money.

(WallStNation.com) Goldman shares are just $1 away from its 52-week high, trading at $179 and in 2009 its stock has climbed 112%. Don't forget that Goldman's Q3 trading record: In 64 trading days, it lost money on just one, and made more than $100 million per day on 36 days - down from 46 in Q2.

On the quarter, Goldman's equities commmissions fell to $930 million from $1.2 billion a year ago, but trading profits soared to $1.8 billion from $354 million. Goldman lost $3.6 billion on forex trading, up from a $1.4 billion loss in Q2.

Here's the whole 10-Q - Click to Access.

SHOW ME THE MONEY

(FT.com) According to Goldman’s calculations, since 2000 the bank has paid out 46.7 per cent of its revenues to employees, well below the 52.1 per cent paid by current and former competitors such as Morgan Stanley, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and the investment banking arm of JPMorgan Chase.

The average annual earnings returned to shareholders, per employee, totalled $196,004, compared with $79,962 at the other banks, Goldman maintained. If the bank’s fourth-quarter earnings keep up at the pace set for the first three quarters of the year, Goldman is likely to pay out an average of $650,000 in compensation to each of its 30,000 employees, matching the record set in 2007.

Mr Blankfein’s presentation came after a speech by Ken Lewis, chief executive of Bank of America, who is stepping down at the end of this year following a series of regulatory probes into the way he handled the acquisition of Merrill Lynch.