hard times all around

Citing a sharp decrease in his personal fourth quarter earnings, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein told guests at his annual Superbowl party that he only had enough cash on hand to buy a small pizza and a few cases of 1990 vintage Cristal. Apologizing for the fact that Elvis Costello would be the sole half-time performer, Blankfein explained that he had blown most of the party's entertainment budget by hiring the 2009 Philadelphia Eagles to work as servers, believing at the time that they would "work a hell of a lot cheaper after their humiliating losses to the Dallas Cowboys." In related ridiculous news, I bring you today's New York Times: Once again, a bonus at Goldman Sachs has all of Wall Street talking - only this time, over how small it is. After weeks of intense speculation, Goldman Sachs disclosed late Friday that its chief executive, Lloyd C. Blankfein, would receive an annual bonus valued at $9 million... And it's even worse than it sounds, cause last year, when Goldman collapsed, he didn't get no bonus at all! And this years bonus is all in deferred stock which he can't sell for five years! And his base salary is only $600,000 plus perks! So unless he has something left from his $68 million bonus from '07, the poor man is practically running on fumes. "It takes a lot of the oxygen out of the argument that Goldman’s top of the house is overpaid," said Brian Foley, an independent compensation consultant in White Plains. "For running an organization that big, and bringing it through the way he did, nine million is not a lot of money." Isn't it nice to know that things are rough all over?