The Spark

the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist

“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx

A Record CEO Bonus

Jan 7, 2008

Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO of investment bank Goldman Sachs, got a record year-end bonus of 68 million dollars. That’s what the average worker in this country would make ... if they could work for 2,158 years!

Blankfein got his bonus because Goldman Sachs was able to declare an 11.6 billion dollar profit in 2007 despite the “subprime” crisis. Goldman Sachs bragged that, unlike its competitors, it understood that bonds based on risky subprime mortgages were going to decline sharply.

That’s not quite the whole story. While Goldman Sachs speculated on the fall of these bond prices, selling off what it held in its own accounts, it continued to buy them for its clients–stiffing them on the deal!

No honor among thieves!