And Now It's Bonus Backlash Backlash

Posted by John Carney, Dec 20, 2006, 12:05pm

You'd think that there would be one newspaper in this town defending Wall Street bonuses. And there is: the New York Sun. Today's editorial defends Goldman Sachs and takes some nice swipes at the bonus bashing from the Post and the News.


News of a good year, performance-wise, at Goldman Sachs and of compensation to match for the firm's employees and executives has set some of our competitors — and no doubt, plenty of other New Yorkers — into singing carols of socialism. The New York Post's Sean Delonas, one of the great humorists in town, drew a cartoon, published in the paper, depicting the Goldman bankers as common criminals, complete with bandit masks.

It's something to imagine Rupert Murdoch reading that over his cornflakes in the apartment on Fifth Avenue for which he reportedly paid $44 million. The Daily News ran an editorial declaring, "Something is wrong when one firm's bonus pool is big enough to end poverty in America's largest city." We wonder under which one of Mortimer Zuckerman's Picassos the News' proprietor was sitting when he read that screed.

Well, if no one else will defend Goldman Sachs, let us have a try. Our view is that while it may be fashionable to disparage success, succeeding deserves celebration, especially when, as at Goldman, it comes at a meritocracy. The Goldman Sachs chief executive who earned about $54 million this year, Lloyd Blankfein, grew up in the far reaches of Brooklyn, the son of a postal worker, and attended Harvard on a scholarship. His rise represents what is right about New York and capitalism, not what is wrong with it.

Goldman $achs [New York Sun]

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Posted by fairest, Dec 20, 2006 1:02PM

Whew. The Sun got it! But in that case, what is wrong about New York and capitalism?

Posted by , Dec 20, 2006 2:05PM

this is ny, the world capital of socialism ... whadya expect?

Posted by Rob, Dec 21, 2006 11:24AM

Are you serious in saying Goldman-Sachs bonuses represent good capitalism.Hell have you not heard about the slave wages they pay their cleaners?Not that you would care,in your coked- up,greed is good,world.Capitalism in the post Reagan years,has become greedier and greedier,never knowing when to stop,turning the thumb screws on the poorest,cutting welfare,decreasing taxes.Just because some guy comes out of a poor background,doesn't justify his egomaniacal and psychopathically greedy behaviour,the sort of logic a two bit judge would throw out of court in an instant."Hey the guy deserved to be richer than the three poorest countries on earth,he came from a poor background".Viva Chavez,and a country that works for everyone,not just overprivileged,out of touch,frat boy inadequates.Me I'm working class,choose to work in public service,and I am a damn sight smarter,happier and better read than the whole lot of you myopic,Wall Street buffoons.Look out rehab and burn out are just around the corner guys.

Posted by Anon, Dec 21, 2006 12:09PM

Rob-

You're evidently well read. A well read idiot nonetheless. Why not try reading a dictionary and basic grammar guide and then attempting to publicly make a fool of yourself? Or are you just proud in receiving self-recognition?

Reading your post is a waste of the entire 30 seconds. To call is drivel is to be charitable. Well it is Christmas.

Good luck being a sorry little human being.

-Anon

Posted by Banker Rage, Dec 21, 2006 12:15PM

People who work in "public service," and brag about it in public, should not be allowed to submit comments in a financial blog.

Posted by AB, Dec 22, 2006 6:27PM

Rob,

"Anon" was very charitable in conceding that you're well read. Perhaps you've just been reading all the wrong books.

To begin with, even if your illogical, mean-spirited hyper-socialist rant were justified by the facts, your idol-worship of Chavez would be inappropriate. Not only is he a man whose twisted economic logic is only saved from disaster by the fact that Venezuela receives steady oil revenues, he has repeatedly attempted to subvert the process of American democracy by buying off myopic people like yourself with subsidized natural gas. The Venezuelan economy is unprepared to withstand a sudden drop in oil prices, and even if it were, the situation is not replicable in the U.S.

Secondly, there is a contradiction buried in your self-congratulatory comment. The reason that people's backgrounds are relevant is because that can prove that they're not "overprivileged,out of touch,frat boy inadequates." In fact, I would argue, from the vapidity of your rant, that you're remarkably more out of touch, and hiding behind the fig leaf of "public service" doesn't salvage your argument in any way.

America's greatest virtue is that it lets people progress, and allows this freedom of opportunity to people of all backgrounds - including people with poor beginnings. And the rich in America give back to society plentifully - but paradoxically, only if they do so in the most vulgar, public way will it appeal to sentiments such as yours.

I know you're a lot smarter and better-read (and, as you claim, happier) than me. But I disagree very strongly with you from the bottom of my unhappy, uneducated heart.

Posted by ws, Jan 22, 2008 1:50PM

How can you compare wall street to the cleaners? Get a life.

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