Recession, what recession?

[Andy]

Six months ago, Goldman Sachs was supported by $10 billion from the U.S. Treasury and relied on government guarantees to issue debt. Moszkowski predicts the company will reap $26.45 billion from trading this year, a gain from $25.36 billion in 2007 when the firm shattered Wall Street profit records.

Moszkowski said the firm will set aside 44.2 percent of total revenue to pay compensation and benefits, letting it pay workers $17.92 billion compared with $10.9 billion last year. Goldman Sachs had 27,898 employees at the end of March. If that number remains unchanged and Moszkowski’s compensation estimate is correct, it would mean an average of $642,447 per employee.

Wow, I would like that kind of "compensation" to get out of bed in the morning and haul my a*ss into the cube and do some trades  

From: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a6qIBznBttBc

What bugs me is that the 44.2 percent internal reward seems not right. The US Treasury etc. should be paid back all the money that they lent them and the shareholders should receive a fat dividend payment IMO. Maybe 20% bonus would be more appropriate distributed more evenly amongst the whole staff? Of course, the major decision makers in the investments should get most credit, but if they are so good, they could trade privately from the comfort of home and maybe set up their own investment companies? But no, they want to leverage the resources available to them from tax payers.

Here's a scary snippet from the referenced article:

Goldman Sachs has “unmatched risk-taking/risk-management skills in a market that strongly rewards these because of decline in competitor risk appetite,” Moszkowski wrote in a note to investors today.

Hmm, that fits my profile too   Also, reminds me of Nick Leeson