Thursday, December 24, 2009

Financial Times Named Lloyd Blankfein Person of the Year

Yes, the title of this post is exactly correct. The "Financial Times of London" has chosen Lloyd C. Blankfein as its person of the year. For those of you that might not recognize the name, Mr. Blankfein is the CEO of Goldman Sachs. During the recent financial debacle, which has been the most testing period since the 1930s, he has become the public face of Wall Street.

This is the company that has faced public anger from American taxpayers during 2009, because not only of the bailouts that it has received but its record profits, making it a symbol of greed and excess. For example, Goldman Sachs will be paying up to $23 billion in bonuses to its 31,700 staff members. Now, according to my math, that is slightly more than $725,000 per individual. Now, don't get me wrong, I am not against making a buck. But, please, given the state of the economy, this was not the time to rub it in the American taxpayers' faces.

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