Is Goldman Sachs pulling the wool over our eyes?

Today, Goldman Sachs, the bank that vacuumed in 10 billion dollars of taxpayer bailout money made a pathetic announcement: They said that they were trimming the bonuses of 7 employees. Here is what they said:

Our senior executive officers made this decision because they believe it is the right thing to do. We cannot ignore the fact that we are part of an industry that is directly associated with the ongoing economic problems.

I guess they could not have made it sound more condescending. Of course, other than the seven people singled out as 'top management', the rest of the firm is set to receive 7 billion dollars in bonuses (per last week’s news). Each of the firm's 443 partners is set to pocket an average of more than 5 million dollars as part of the annual Christmas windfall this year.

It might be better if the people at Goldman try not to pull the wool over the public eye with contrite sounding statements like ‘the top management at the firm are getting no bonuses’ – when it amounts to just 7 individuals. Individuals who might more than likely have some left over change from last years bonus packages that totaled more than 17 billion dollars.

Bonus pools of Wall Street firms up until 2006. In 2007, the total bonus pool was a whooping 36 billion dollars. 36 billion dollars would not have fit into the vertcal axis of the above graph. Source: The Washington Post - December 20, 2006