Tuesday 14 July 2009

Win on the way up, and win on the way down

Goldman continues to make money. Shouldn't regulators start to worry when regular punters don't understand how you made your cash?

Isn't that the lesson of Madoff?

From the NY times.

Up and down Wall Street, analysts and traders are buzzing that Goldman, which only recently paid back its government bailout money, will report blowout profits from trading on Tuesday.

Analysts predict the bank earned a profit of more than $2 billion in the March-June period, because of its trading prowess across world markets. If they are right, the bank’s rivals will once again be left to wonder exactly how Goldman, long the envy of Wall Street, could have rebounded so drastically only months after the nation’s financial industry was shaken to its foundations.

The obsessive speculation has already begun, along with banter about how Goldman’s rapid return to minting money will be perceived by lawmakers and taxpayers who aided Goldman with a multibillion-dollar cushion last fall.

“They exist, and others don’t, and taxpayers made it possible,” said one industry consultant, who, like many people interviewed for this article, declined to be named for fear of jeopardizing business relationships.

Startling, too, is how much of its revenue Goldman is expected to share with its employees. Analysts estimate that the bank will set aside enough money to pay a total of $18 billion in compensation and benefits this year to its 28,000 employees, or more than $600,000 an employee. Top producers stand to earn millions.

5 comments:

Nick Drew said...

Shouldn't regulators start to worry when regular punters don't understand how you made your cash?

that was Enron all over
(except with them it was profits but NOT cash ...)

and there was wailing and a gnashing of teeth - why didn't the rating agencies spot it sooner ? and they all vowed to do better next time

how short memories are ...

Anonymous said...

Alice - just because you are not smart enough to understand how GS makes its profits - don't assume the rest of us are equally unaware.

I doubt "regular punters" know how to fly an jumbo jet or build a nuclear power station any more than understand a P&L statement or balance sheet. Should they stop taking holidays and switching on the lights?

Your blog is getting increasingly facile.

john miller said...

I want some! A risk-free business model where you earn billions of dollars!

Anonymous said...

Of course it's not risk-free. There is a stack of nail-chewin' risk. Yessir. That's why these guys deserve to earn the daddy money. Isn't it?

Anonymous said...

Of course it's not risk-free. There is a stack of nail-chewin' risk. Yessir. That's why these guys deserve to earn the daddy money. Isn't it?