The New York Post reports that Goldman Sachs is trying to temper public sentiment towards it by asking employees not to make large ostentatious purchases with bonus payments:
Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein has warned his employees to avoid making big-ticket, high-profile purchases as the gold-plated Wall Street firm hunkers down amid a firestorm of public and political anger over outsize bonus payments.
The news comes after the FT reported on Monday that Goldman Sachs’ reputation among both the general public and financially has suffered in the past year after the bank said it would pay out million-dollar bonuses just eight months after receiving government bailout funds.
Others, meanwhile, have also questioned the incongruity of Goldman Sachs’ recent statement that its proprietary trading algorithms posed a potential risk to US markets if found in the wrong hands, but not their own.
We, however, note that at least it shows Goldman Sachs may be learning from films like Superman III. For those who don’t remember, here’s a quick summary
An unemployed Metropolitan, Gus Roman — aka Richard Pryor– discovers a knack for computer programming:
With his newly found skills he finds an entry-level job at the Metropolis-based conglomerate Webscoe Industries, run by Ross Webster, aka Robert Vaughn.
Upon discovering his weekly paycheck is rounded down to the largest whole number, he cunningly finds a programme to pool all the “cents that are just floating around out there” into his account, raising an extra $85,000.
Unfortunately, he is found out by Mr. Webster after arriving to work like this:
Faced with prosecution or serving his boss as a computer programmer directly, he opts to do Mr. Webster’s will. This amongst others includes manipulating coffee markets, oil prices and the great Superman himself.
It also entails the building of one giant super-computer to control the world. Ahhh…
But that of course is fiction.
Related links:
GOLDMAN PRINCES TOLD: SPEND LIKE PAUPERS - New York Post
Superman III – Wikipedia
Superman III – Youtube