# Billion dollar bail-out for end of year bonuses **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 2, 2008, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billion-dollar-bail-out-for-end-of-year-bonuses/470718 "2008-11-02T14:06:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billion-dollar-bail-out-for-end-of-year-bonuses/470718/21 "2008-11-02T20:03:01Z")
> [@Avumede](#): > > To be fair to Goldman Sachs, they were one of the companies that didn’t bet the farm on the housing market, in fact they in general invested wisely. So they aren’t being affected by their own problems so much as their national situation. The CDS market seems to have done at least as much damage as the housing stuff. Goldman-Sachs were a player in that, although it’s hard to tell how culpable they were. ---
**Author:** ![Jesus\_Harold\_Christ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f14d63/32.png) [@Jesus\_Harold\_Christ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jesus_Harold_Christ)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billion-dollar-bail-out-for-end-of-year-bonuses/470718/22 "2008-11-02T20:12:11Z")
Anyone else find it funny that Goldman Sachs pays its partners _Christmas_ bonuses? ---
**Author:** ![Lantern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d26b3c/32.png) [@Lantern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lantern)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billion-dollar-bail-out-for-end-of-year-bonuses/470718/23 "2008-11-02T20:24:00Z")
Is Goldman Sachs actually receiving any government bailout money? If it is then the outrage is justified but I was under the impression that among the big Wall Street players they were in relatively good shape especially after the multi-billion dollar investment by Warren Buffet. IIRC they were relatively less exposed to the sub-prime mess and actually made huge amounts of money betting against sub-prime securities. ---
**Author:** ![Lantern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d26b3c/32.png) [@Lantern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lantern)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billion-dollar-bail-out-for-end-of-year-bonuses/470718/24 "2008-11-02T20:29:14Z")
OK apparently GS is receiving government money. This article has more details: [http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1853846,00.html?imw=Y](http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1853846,00.html?imw=Y) ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billion-dollar-bail-out-for-end-of-year-bonuses/470718/25 "2008-11-02T22:12:33Z")
> [@Discordia](#): > > On the plus side, it’s been so bad a backlash may well happen. I imagine candidates running against Wall Street would be pretty successful right about now. > **[It's Been Real - LOLFED](http://lolfed.com/)** > > Financial Humor, Political Jokes and LOLCats > [@](#): > > ``` > “Specifically, corporate expenditures and payments, made in the absence of fair consideration of undercapitalized firms, may well violate NY Debtor and Creditor Law 274, which deems such payments illegal fraudulent conveyances,” Cuomo’s letter said. > > The letter said that “obviously, we will have grave concerns if your expected bonus pool has increased in any way as a result of your receipt or expected receipt of taxpayer funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program.” > > ``` With a name like Cuomo, someone’s looking for higher office. So… how do you feel about pound-me-in-the-ass State Prison? ---
**Author:** ![threemae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f9b8f/32.png) [@threemae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/threemae)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billion-dollar-bail-out-for-end-of-year-bonuses/470718/26 "2008-11-02T23:30:41Z")
None of these articles even begin to provide sufficient information to be pissed off about this. First, citing a combined figure for bonuses and salaries is idiotic. It might be possible to cut bonuses to the bone, but the suggestion that you can just cut salaries at a whim without destroying your organization is ludicrous and conflating the two without providing a proper breakout of what’s bonuses and what’s salaries is moronic and inflammatory. Second, Goldman Sachs is indeed still the far healthiest of the remaining (former) investment banks. It still has a market cap of ~$40 billion dollars, and no one is really questioning its solvency at this point. The articles don’t make it clear _which_ credit facilities that Goldman Sachs has availed itself to, and in any event these are credit facilities, not free-money facilities. A “lifeline” is likely a severe misrepresentation. Even in these trying times, I think most experts would consider the risk of GS defaulting on its obligations very small. In short, if you aren’t a GS shareholder, I’m really not impressed by the invective of anyone in this thread, and disappointed in the level of critical-thinking demonstrated. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billion-dollar-bail-out-for-end-of-year-bonuses/470718.md?page=1)