Timothy Swift

Goldman Sachs Backlash Is Picking Up Steam

Of course GS was "fully hedged." They have an enormous number of alum at all levels of government. Hank Paulson, et al, was the hedge...

How Wall Street Keeps Dooming Itself

Nope. Having the President of the United States, the leader of the free world, throw rhetorical bombs into the process isn't helpful and doesn't efficiently allocate capital. I get the politics of it, but this is what I object to!

Which industry is he going to train his attention and megaphone on next? Healthcare and energy are in the headlights...

The street is sorting itself out and will eliminate, by some estimates, 200,000+ jobs in Q1 of this year. Who knows it may grow it may not, but the system of allocating capital is ever so slowly doing its job. The market adjusts up and adjusts down. You can be certain the bonus pool next year won't be nearly the same size.

The other thing you can count on is a meaningful drain of intellectual capital (term used losely) from the major money center banks to other less regulated and out of the spot light entities where earnings aren't nearly as encumbered by political meddling. With it will go the experience of having gone through the risks of a major liquidity crisis (not to be underestimated), ultimately leaving the keys to the kingdom to less experienced operators.

How Wall Street Keeps Dooming Itself

A rather inconvenient truth is Albany and NYC also benefit from the mothers milk of Wallstreet bonuses. At a mere $18 bln the city and state are witnessing a $1.3 bln short fall in tax collections. Followed by an announced potential 20,000 job cuts in the service personel pool of NYC.

Blasting the bonuses has far reaching consequences. Lambasting is easy by those not losing their respective jobs due to the fallout... and I'm not talking about wallstreet jobs! I'm talking about the better than 8 million people that live in and around Manhattan that depend on that injection of cash into the system for their livelyhood.

The repercussions of government dictating private business practices is far more dangerous than the bonuses. Justified or not.

For the sake of conversation... What do you suppose Wallstreet's adjusted hourly rate is? Just curious. Most I know don't work a 40 hour week.