The consensus seems to be that Obama’s proposal to limit the operations of the banks to lending and securities underwriting, and not proprietary trading and hedge fund investing, if enacted, would be bad for banks and bank shareholders. Many pointed to the so-called Volcker rule to explain last week’s market sell-off. Like Ritholtz, I’m …
Goldman Sachs
Attention: It’s OK to Buy Stuff Again. Just Be Quiet About It
After enduring month after month of conscientiously not spending, people in certain circles are experiencing “frugal fatigue.” Is an epic shopping binge inevitable?
Goldman: It’s not the bonuses, it’s the profits
Goldman Sachs, in response to the continuing bad press it’s been getting for planning to shower its employees with money, announced today that bonuses for its top 30 managers will be paid out entirely in stock.
Yawn. Bonuses for top management at Goldman were already paid out mostly in stock. Goldman already used clawbacks to make sure …
Goldman Sachs tries to make amends
Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein is sorry. Speaking yesterday at a conference sponsored by Directorship magazine (which has named him CEO of the Year), Blankfein expressed remorse for the firm’s role in helping to bring the country to the brink of financial collapse:
“We participated in things that were clearly wrong and have reason to
…
The small-business recession isn’t over yet
Goldman Sachs economist Jan Hatzius writes that bad times among small businesses, which are harder for government statisticians to measure than the doings of big businesses, probably means the economy is growing slower than the feds say it is:
We have argued that the weakness of the small business sector may mean that real GDP in the
…
At least some banks are losing money
First Goldman Sachs reports earnings of $3.2 billion for the quarter. But then, a few minutes later, Citigroup tells the world that it sort of made a little money but also sort of lost a lot of money (that is, it reported net income of $101 million, but said that, after dividends to preferred shareholders and its exchange of the …
Retail sales down. JPMorgan profits up. Wall Street pay up. Hmmmm
The headlines this morning were a catchy juxtaposition: “Retail sales drop on fall in autos.” “JPMorgan profits surge six fold.” Oh, and “Wall Street on track to award record pay.”
The retail sales decline was actually a just a knock-on effect of the expiration of cash for clunkers. Retail sales excluding autos were up 0.5% on the …