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   From: Dum@Bushies.net   
      
   Goldman Sachs 2009 bonuses to double 2008's; $23 billion could buy 115   
   million iPhones, or send 460,000 to Harvard   
      
   Yesterday, we brought you the insurance company that wouldn't insure a   
   17-pound infant because he was too heavy. Today, we bring you the investment   
   bank that manages to double its bonuses during the worst recession since the   
   Great Depression.   
   On Thursday, Goldman Sachs will announce the firm's bonus payments for 2009.   
   Analysts expect the bonus pool to mushroom to $23 billion -- double the   
   bonus pool paid to employees in 2008. Earlier this year, Goldman Sachs said   
   that it had put aside $11.4 billion for bonuses during the first half of the   
   year.   
      
   "The absolute size of compensation payouts will rise significantly," Keith   
   Horowitz, an analyst at Citigroup, wrote in a note to clients two weeks ago,   
   highlighted by Andrew Sorkin in The New York Times' dealbook column Tuesday.   
      
   How much is $23,000,000,000?   
      
   For one thing, it's enough to send 460,000 full paying students to Harvard   
   University for one year, or 115,000 for four years.   
      
   It's enough to upgrade 191 million computers to Windows 7 operating system   
   (priced at $119.99).   
      
   It's also enough to buy 115 million iPhones at $199.99 (provided the   
   recipient was willing to sign a two-year contract).   
      
   Or, apparently, it's enough to reward the employees of Goldman Sachs for a   
   bonanza trading year, at a firm where average employee compensation is   
   $700,000 -- and sure to be greater this year.   
      
   The $23 billion figure could leave some American taxpayers woozy -- the US   
   government bailed out Goldman Sachs with a multi-billion payment last year,   
   which the firm has since repaid.   
      
   But while Goldman is likely to pay its biggest bonuses ever to employees,   
   the firm pays very little in taxes worldwide. In 2008, the company was said   
   to have paid just $14 million in taxes worldwide, and paid $6 billion in   
   2007.   
      
   The firm's corporate tax rate? About 1 percent. According a prominent tax   
   lawyer, "They have taken steps to ensure that a lot of their income is   
   earned in lower-tax jurisdictions."   
      
   Sorkin says Goldman's CEO is trying to hold off criticism by making a big   
   charitable donation.   
      
   "Now there's talk inside Goldman that it is considering making a huge   
   charitable donation - perhaps more than $1 billion - as a way to help   
   deflect the criticism," Sorkin says. "Such a donation would be a welcome   
   gesture that would no doubt benefit many needy organizations. But it would   
   most likely be seen for what it is: a one-time move to draw attention away   
   from where most of the money is really going. A large charitable donation   
   also raises questions about the company's fiduciary duty to its   
   shareholders; it could be seen as giving away profits that ostensibly belong   
   to them."   
      
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   Amazing how a handful of thieves rely on a handful of liars to broadcast   
   crap and rile up the masses to march and vote against their own interests.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)