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May 10, 2011: The 'vampire squid' of Wall Street faces wrath of nuns
Excerpt:
The Great Vampire Squid was forced to face the people last week as Goldman Sachs held its widely anticipated annual meeting. Wall Street's most powerful investment bank hosted shareholders at its building in Jersey City for the first time as it sought to head off anger about the fortunes it pays its top people and its role in the financial crisis.
The bank has dealt with these questions before, but this year's meeting promised to be particularly tricky. The meeting was the first time Goldman's chief executive and chairman, Lloyd Blankfein, had faced shareholders since the bank agreed to pay $550m to settle civil fraud charges laid by the Securities and Exchange Commission after Goldman sold clients mortgage bonds that were created by a hedge fund betting against the housing market.
A host of activist religious investors, including a group of nuns, turned up to the AGM under the banner of the Interfaith Centre on Corporate Responsibility to protest against the way Goldman rewards its bankers. The bank's top five executives were awarded almost $70m in total for 2010.
Sister Nora Nash, the corporate responsibility director for the Sisters of St Francis of Philadelphia, caused discomfort by pointing out:
"Execs have amassed untold wealth while a billion people suffer from poverty." Sister Nora's resolution requiring Goldman's board to judge whether pay was "excessive" got about 4% of the vote. The bank's own resolution on how to pay its executives secured 73% of votes.
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Goldman Sachs CEO's pay nearly doubles despite slump in profits
Goldman's chief executive, Lloyd Blankfein, takes home $9m more for a year in which bank's profits dropped 38%
Excerpt:
An era of bonus "restraint" at Goldman Sachs came to a shuddering halt as the Wall Street bank almost doubled the pay package of its chief executive, Lloyd Blankfein, to $18.6m (£11.5m) for 2010 in spite of a slump in profits.
Blankfein, 56, who once quipped that his firm does "God's work", received share awards of $12.6m on top of a $5.4m performance-related cash bonus, and a salary of $600,000. He also received additional benefits worth $464,000, according to a filing by Goldman at the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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Virtue
1. moral excellence; goodness; righteousness.
2. conformity of one's life and conduct to moral and ethical principles; uprightness; rectitude.
