Goldman Sachs bankers in line for ?1.5 BILLION pay and bonus pot (and that's just for London staff)

• Workers receive average of ?238,000
• Goldman's global pot for pay and bonuses is ?8.2bn
• Vince Cable: 'Awards reflect lack of reality about the world we now live in'
• Goldman Sachs announce profit fall from ?5.5bn in 2010 to ?1.95bn last year
  

By Nick Enoch

Last updated at 5:33 PM on 18th January 2012

London bankers at Goldman Sachs are in line for a pay and bonus pot of ?1.5billion, despite a fall in profits.

With Britain in the grip of a recession, the announcement will only add to public fury over City payouts.

The company, which is awarding its workers ?8.2billion globally, has 5,300 staff based in Britain.

Business Secretary Vince Cable said: 'These pay awards reflect a basic lack of reality about the world we now live in.

The company, which is awarding its workers ?8.2billion globally, has 5,300 staff based in Britain

'The concern is that it could have a knock-on effect throughout the banking sector at exactly the time the Government and businesses are urging restraint.'

Goldman is paying out an average of ?238,000 in salary, bonuses and equity awards to its approximate 30,000 staff globally for their efforts in 2011.

This is down from an average ?280,000 the previous year.

David Viniar, Goldman's finance director, insisted that 'discretionary' bonuses were down 'considerably more than revenues' during the year.

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The news comes despite disappointing annual results from the investment bank.

Goldman Sachs (nicknamed the 'Vampire Squid' as its tentacles stretch far and wide) revealed profits fell to ?1.95billion last year, from ?5.5billion in 2010.

This would make it its second lowest annual profit in almost ten years, reflecting the impact Europe's debt crisis is having on the Wall Street bank.

The total pot this year is ?1.8billion less than the ?10billion awarded for their efforts the previous year.

Occupy London protesters outside St Paul's making a stand against corporate greed

The dip in profits also underlines the struggle the bank, under chief executive Lloyd Blankfein, is facing from new regulations.

The Volcker Rule, due to come into force in July, bans banks from gambling with their own money and limits the amount of capital they can invest in hedge funds and private equity investments.

Former banker William Cohan said: 'I think a firm like Goldman has real problems.

'Some of the lines they've been traditionally strong in are being regulated out of existence,' he told The Daily Telegraph.

Goldman is axing 1,000 jobs and cutting ?780million in costs by the middle of the year to protect profits.

However, it may take some solace in the fact it topped the mergers and acquisitions league table in the UK, consulting on deals worth ?76.5billion.

A protester waves a sign outside Goldman Sachs's New York HQ

Preparing for 'doughnut' bonuses

The bars around London's finance district may soon start filling up with bankers fresh from pay discussions, but not many will be there to splash their bonus cash. ? ?

This year zero bonuses, known as 'doughnuts', will affect even senior staff and could include a bigger proportion of employees than in the 2008 financial crisis, bankers and headhunters predicted as U.S. firms start telling bankers this week what they will get.???

Slumping quarterly profits, a darkening long-term outlook for the industry and unrelenting pressure from politicians and an angry public, are pushing bank bosses to break away from a culture in which most staff expect a bonus every year and base their personal budget around it.??

'This will probably be the worst year for zero bonuses we've seen, although those that will have done well will still get something,' said Jason Kennedy, who runs recruiting firm Kennedy Group.???

'Global heads and senior managing directors are among those that will get nothing -- they're the expensive staff, and they'll be living off their higher salaries.'

Underperforming bankers already came under pressure in the 2010 bonus round as 'doughnuts' multiplied, but this time division heads are raising the bar and reserving payouts for an even smaller group of star bankers.???

Bonuses would be down at least 30 per cent for those that do get one, Kennedy said, while other recruiters predict cuts of up to 70 per cent in some areas, such as bond trading.???

Bankers at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan and Citi are among those expecting to hear about their bonuses this week, coinciding with these firms' fourth quarter results. ???

Overall pay at JP Morgan's investment bank came in at $8.8billion, down 9 per cent on 2010 levels, while total revenues for the year were flat, its filings showed last week.????

PUBLIC FURY OVER BANK BONUSES

Bonuses at RBS could total as much as ?500million

The rise of 'doughnuts' will not mean the end to bonuses or to public anger over payouts.???

At government-controlled banks like Britain's Royal Bank of Scotland, where bonuses are likely to total ?400-500million, according to sources and company reports, these rewards are still under fire.???

'It's extremely difficult to justify any bonus at all at a state-owned bailed-out bank,' Tory MP Steve Baker said.???

Baker joined about 40 anti-capitalist protesters from the 'Occupy London' movement in a gathering outside the offices of Britain's financial watchdog last week, condemning excessive executive pay.???

Ahead of this year's bonus season, the British government has also moved to clamp down on rewards by suggesting shareholders should get a veto on pay. ???

As scrutiny of investment banks' pay practices mounts, many are already taking their own steps to amend the structure of rewards, beyond just cutting them. ???

Morgan Stanley will reportedly tell employees this week that cash payouts will be capped at ?80,000 ($125,000), with any portion received above this deferred until at least the end of the year.

Top management might defer their entire bonuses for 2012.?

Antonio Horta-Osorio, the boss of taxpayer-backed Lloyds Banking Group, revealed last week that he would not take his annual bonus for last year

'Whiter than white' senior bankers???

Since 2009, salaries have often doubled for top investment bankers, to around ?350,000 ($536,500) on average, according to recruiters' estimates. ????

This was after firms tried to find ways around a bonus tax in Britain and tougher rules on rewards across Europe.

It put additional pressure on bonus pots, through which firms still have some leverage to cut pay costs.???

Senior bankers in charge of bonus decisions for their teams have been talking tough about pay for months, preparing staff for lower payouts by pointing to the thousands of jobs being cut across the industry and to the rise in salaries.???

'We've got to be realistic. We're not talking hardship here,' said a division head at one major U.S. firm.

'There is a psychological impact when you don't get a bonus - it used to mean you're not doing well and could be let go.

'It doesn't make the [bonus] conversation very easy, but this year there will be strength in numbers.'?

Many expect these senior bankers to be among those to forgo big payouts, partly as a move to appease disgruntled staff.?? ???

'They have to be seen to be whiter than white, and not to be necessarily paying themselves but the performers in their teams,' said Jonathan Evans, chairman of headhunters Sammons Associates.???

Last week, the boss of Lloyds Banking Group forfeited a ?2.4million bonus for 2011, saying he wants to share the pain being suffered by ordinary people.

Ant?nio Horta-Os?rio, who returned to work this month after treatment at the Priory clinic for exhaustion, said his bonus should reflect ?the tough financial circumstances that many people are facing?.

But the 47-year-old Portuguese executive could still earn up to ?10million for 2011, thanks to a ?golden handshake? awarded to compensate him for benefits lost when he left Santander UK to join Lloyds.

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Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2088261/Goldman-Sachs-bankers-line-1-5-BILLION-pay-bonus-pot-thats-just-London-staff.html?ITO=1490

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Neil Patrick Harris & David Burtka's Sexy Photo Shoot

Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka make relationships look easy. And in the new love issue of Out magazine, the couple -- who poses for some sexy photos together -- discusses their complementary personalities and their lasting love.

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/neil-patrick-harris-and-david-burtka-get-close-out-photo-shoot/1-a-420373?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Aneil-patrick-harris-and-david-burtka-get-close-out-photo-shoot-420373

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NCAA Basketball: Louisville Lose Rakeem Buckles For The Season

Read More: Rakeem Buckles (F - Louisville), Marquette Golden Eagles

Louisville's Rakeem Buckles must be the unluckiest guy in college basketball right now. During Louisville's 74-63 loss to the Marquette Golden Eagles, Buckles tore the ACL in his left knee. Originally thought to be a simply hyperextended knee during the game, it was quickly recognized as something far worse after the game was over.

This is Buckles' second ACL tear in as many years, as he tore his right ACL in February of 2011, only recently getting clearance to play again for Louisville. His season had not been incredibly impressive thus far -- his team role seemed to be 'decent bench spark' more than anything else -- but two ACL tears in two years is still an awful thing to have to go through for anyone, athlete or not.

He will possibly play a fifth year with Louisville after this tear heals.

For more on the Louisville Cardinals, check out Card Chronicle.

Source: http://indiana.sbnation.com/louisville-cardinals/2012/1/18/2716061/ncaa-basketball-louisville-cardinals-rakeem-buckles-injured

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Dominic Waughray: Green Business at Davos

What do green issues have to do with Davos? Many people assume that the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting will focus on the financial crisis still rippling through the world. This may be an important part of the program, but it's far from the whole story. A strong green thread runs right through the Meeting, demonstrating the fact that questions about economic growth and environmental sustainability are not separate, but tightly intertwined. At Davos this year, we want to launch a transformation to bring the energy and ingenuity of industry to bear on addressing the urgent problem of climate change.

It's all too clear why a new approach is needed. Getting countries to agree on how to tackle greenhouse gas emissions is vitally important, but it is also a necessarily slow process. Last year's UN climate summit in Durban was a diplomatic success in that it managed to extend the Kyoto Protocol to 2017 and finalize a process to agree a new global accord to cut greenhouse gases. But countries have until 2015 to negotiate the new accord, and the measures won't actually come into force until 2020. Climate scientists, while welcoming the progress, are frustrated by the pace of these talks and are concerned that inevitable compromises will create too weak an agreement, given the scale of the challenge.

As a series of recent disasters has reminded us, we cannot afford lengthy delays in dealing with the interconnected issues of climate change, extreme weather, resources, economic development and humanitarian crises. Floods have cost the Thai economy US$45 billion in 2011, about 7% of its GDP according to the World Bank, with wider disruption to many global supply chains. Parts of China are experiencing their worst drought in 60 years, affecting over four million farmers. Poor rains across Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda have created the worst drought since 1950, affecting more than 10 million people and pushing food prices upward.

Worryingly, these events could be trends rather than outliers. A recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says that it is at least 90% certain that the sort of exceptionally hot day that would occur once in every twenty years on average will occur once in every two years by the end of the 21st century. It also predicts with 66% certainty that the frequency of heavy rainfall will increase, particularly in tropical regions.

While international diplomacy goes at its own pace, many developing countries have seized the initiative and begun tackling these threats by designing more sustainable, resilient paths to economic growth. They are building up investment programs in clean energy, energy efficiency, water management systems, climate-resilient agriculture, smart grids and low-carbon transport systems. Reflecting this shift towards "green growth", developing countries now have more than half of the world's global renewable power capacity, and these investments are growing. According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, in 2011, for the first time, global investment in new renewable power plants (US$187 billion) surpassed fossil fuel power plant investment (US$157 billion).

Although this trend is encouraging, much more needs to be done to attract the private finance necessary to fund the green infrastructure at the speed and scale that developing countries require. Investors are understandably cautious about the risks involved in this relatively new area. Small amounts of well targeted public finance can, however, help to soothe their nerves and lure in much-needed private sector funds. Some new models are already starting to emerge on how this can happen. For example, to support India's efforts to build up its solar power industry, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) recently launched a US$150 million Partial Credit Guarantee mechanism to help shield private sector investors from some of the various risks associated with the new technology. Several projects representing over 600 Megawatts of new solar capacity are now in the due diligence stage, and are seeking to benefit from this new facility.

At Durban, the World Economic Forum ran a series of talks on how to get the best out of these kinds of public and private sector partnerships in order to boost green growth, and the same ideas will be taken on to the next level at Davos. Specifically, the Government of Mexico in its role as G20 Chair for 2012 has invited the Forum to develop practical recommendations on this agenda. The first meeting of heads of state, ministers, investors, business leaders and international experts to discuss what sort of practical network of new investment mechanisms might work will take place at Davos. The Great Transformation - the theme of this year's meeting - will also be a green transformation. With governments unable to move quickly and citizens impatient for change, industry must be both encouraged and enabled to play its part in tackling climate change.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dominic-waughray/green-business-at-davos_b_1212885.html

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Russia: New sanctions against Iran too stifling (AP)

MOSCOW ? A military attack on Iran would trigger a "chain reaction" that destabilizes the world, while new sanctions against Tehran over its disputed nuclear program would "stifle" the Iranian economy and hurt its people, Russia's foreign minister warned Wednesday.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia is "seriously worried" about the prospect of a military action against Iran and is doing all it can to prevent it.

"The consequences will be extremely grave," he said. "It's not going to be an easy walk. It will trigger a chain reaction and I don't know where it will stop."

The threat of more sanctions as well as the possibility of military action against Iran are linked to concerns about its uranium enrichment program. The U.S. and its Western allies suspect it is aimed at developing nuclear weapons. Iran insists its efforts are designed for civilian power generation and research.

Israel considers a nuclear-armed Iran a threat to its survival and has hinted it could take military action if sanctions fail to stop Iran's nuclear bid. The U.S. considers a military strike on Iran's known nuclear facilities undesirable because it could have unintended consequences and would likely only stall, not end, Tehran's nuclear drive. Washington worries that Iran's recent claim that it is expanding nuclear operations might prod Israel closer to a strike.

Russia has long walked a fine line on the Iranian nuclear crisis, mixing careful criticism of Iran, an important trading partner, with praise for some of its moves and calls for more talks. Although Moscow, which built Iran's first nuclear power plant, has backed some of the previous U.N. sanctions against Iran, it has in recent months firmly rejected new ones.

In a press conference, Lavrov predicted that a military attack on Iran would send refugees streaming into its Caspian Sea neighbor Azerbaijan and further on to Russia, and said it could also "add fuel to the smoldering confrontation between Sunnis and Shiites." The Sunni Arab states in the Gulf like Saudi Arabia are close U.S. allies, locked in decades-old rivalries with Iran's Shiite-led Islamic Republic.

The U.S. already has imposed new sanctions targeting Iran's central bank and, by extension, refiners' ability to buy and pay for crude. The EU is weighing whether to impose sanctions on buying Iranian oil, which is the source of more than 80 percent of Tehran's foreign revenue.

On Wednesday, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said his nation will back a possible EU oil embargo against Iran that would start July 1 even though it would inflict "huge damage" on its two major oil importers.

Cash-strapped Greece has indicated it wants to stall any action because it is an importer of Iranian oil and gets the best payment terms from Tehran. EU ambassadors will address the issue Thursday ahead of next Monday's meeting of EU foreign ministers.

Lavrov, however, said sanctions on Iranian oil exports have "nothing to do with a desire to strengthen the nuclear nonproliferation." "It's aimed at stifling the Iranian economy and the population in an apparent hope to provoke discontent," the Russian foreign minister said.

Russia believes that "all conceivable sanctions already have been applied" and that new penalties could derail hopes for continuing six-way negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program, provoking Iranian intransigence, Lavrov said.

He noted that the EU's consideration of new sanctions comes as Iran plans to host a delegation from the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

"We believe that there is every chance to resume talks between the six powers and Iran, and we are concerned about obstacles being put to them," he said. "The sanctions could hardly help make the talks productive."

Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said Wednesday upon arrival in the Turkish capital that Istanbul is the likely venue for further talks with world powers on his country's nuclear program. He did not give a date for the negotiations, but said Turkey is in touch with Iranian and EU officials.

Meanwhile, Iran's official IRNA news agency said a senior security official, Ali Bagheri, headed to Moscow for talks with Lavrov and other Russian officials Wednesday.

____

Ali Akbar Dareini in Tehran, Iran and Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara, Turkey contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120118/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_iran

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Summary Box: Europe debt auctions lift stocks (AP)

DEBT SALES: Auctions of short-term debt by Spain, Greece and Europe's bailout fund drew strong investor demand on Tuesday, despite recent credit rating downgrades by Standard & Poor's. Many had feared the downgrades would prevent them from obtaining funds and worsen the debt crisis.

CHINA GROWTH: The Chinese government said its economy slowed less dramatically in the fourth quarter than analysts had feared. Demand from China is key to sustaining the global economy.

MIXED EARNINGS: Stocks rose on the encouraging news from abroad, despite mixed earnings reports from big U.S. banks.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120117/ap_on_bi_ge/us_wall_street_summary_box

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More US Catholics take complaints to church court (AP)

NEW YORK ? Parents upset by the admission policy at a parochial school. Clergy and parishioners at odds over use of their building. A priest resisting a transfer to another parish.

It was once assumed that disagreements like these in the Roman Catholic Church would end one way: with the highest-ranking cleric getting the last word.

But that outcome is no longer a given as Catholics, emboldened following the clergy abuse scandals that erupted a decade ago this month, have sought another avenue of redress.

In recent years, clergy and lay people in the United States have increasingly turned to the church's internal legal system to challenge a bishop's or pastor's decision about even the most workaday issues in Catholic life, according to canon lawyers in academia, dioceses and in private practice. Sometimes, the challengers even win.

In one example cited by veteran canon lawyers, parishioners wanted to bar musical performances in their church that weren't liturgical. Their priest had been renting space to a local band. In another case, a nun filed a petition after a religious superior disclosed the nun's medical information to others ? a potential violation of privacy. Regarding bishops' often contentious decisions to close parishes, the liberal reform group FutureChurch posts a guide on its website called "Canonical Appeals for Dummies" on seeking Vatican intervention to stay open.

The reasons for the uptick are complex and reach back decades, involving changes in the church and broader society. Canon lawyers say the American concern for individual freedoms likely has played a role. So has the explosion of information on the Internet. But the change is also an unexpected consequence of the clergy molestation crisis, with the scandal exerting an influence far beyond cases that directly involve abusers.

"The focus on canon law and penal procedures in the case of sexual misconduct has made people aware that the church has a law system, it can work and people can take advantage of it," said Michael Ritty, founder of Canon Law Professionals, a private practice in Feura Bush, N.Y. "For so long, especially in the United States, many of the lay people did not speak up and did not know how to speak up, and many people in the hierarchy did not know how to accept things when people did speak up. I think that is changing."

No one knows the exact number of formal petitions before tribunals or agencies at the Vatican, or before church officials in the U.S. or in any country. The cases are guarded by pontifical secrecy, which bars advocates, judges and other parties from revealing details of the proceedings.

Still, U.S. canon lawyers say they have seen more widespread use of church law to resolve disputes.

Edward Peters, a canon lawyer and professor at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, said the increase in canonical litigation is "indisputable."

The Canon Law Society of America, a professional group for church lawyers, held a workshop on the trend called "Hierarchical Recourse: Can't We All Just Get Along?" Ritty founded his private practice in 2000 to keep active after he retired and now employs three other canon lawyers. Abuse cases are a significant part of his work, along with marriage annulments, but Ritty also has many cases relating to everyday church issues, such as use of money.

"Most of us, when we were training, were preparing for marriage tribunals, marriage annulments," said Monsignor Patrick Lagges of Chicago, a canon lawyer for three decades who helped lead the canon law society workshop last year. "Now there's such a broad range of things. It's a much broader field."

Until recently, the only canon law most American Catholics knew related to annulments, church declarations that a marriage was never valid. (For years, the majority of annulment petitions to the Vatican have come from the United States.) The first complete code of canon law, published in 1917, was also the first to be translated from the Latin into English. Even then, the system remained obscure, considered the province of an educated clergy-elite who were fluent in Latin and could quote directly from centuries-old papal decrees.

The Second Vatican Council, the 1960s meetings that ushered in modernizing reforms, aimed to make canon law more accessible. A revised legal code was eventually issued in 1983 by Pope John Paul II that placed new emphasis on the rights and obligations of all Catholics, lay and clergy. "The Christian faithful can legitimately vindicate and defend the rights which they possess in the Church in the competent ecclesiastical forum according to the norm of law," canon 221:1 says.

Yet, no flurry of canonical petitions followed.

A few prominent cases played out in public. The ex-wife of former Massachusetts Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II, son of Robert F. Kennedy, wrote a book about her appeal to reverse the church decision to annul their marriage of a dozen years. The Vatican took about a decade to decide the case, but ruled in her favor. In the 1990s, some parishioners appealed Cardinal Joseph Bernardin's decision to close their Chicago church. They succeeded in a phase of the appeal, but the building was ultimately shut down. Still, the numbers of cases remained small.

Then, 10 years ago, a crisis unfolded that became the worst in U.S. church history.

The Boston Globe persuaded a Massachusetts judge to unseal documents that showed the Archdiocese of Boston kept clergy who had molested children in parishes without warning parents or police. The outrage that the news reports generated spread nationwide.

Soon, every American bishop was pressured to disclose diocesan records on abusive clergy. In June, beleaguered church leaders gathered in Dallas, trailed by more than 750 reporters, to adopt a new child protection policy and discipline plan for guilty priests.

Suddenly, canon law was front-page news.

In many cases, the church's internal legal system was the only recourse for church officials who wanted to remove clergy from public ministry or the priesthood. Most victims came forward decades after they had been molested, long after the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution in civil court had passed. So over several months, American bishops began a closely watched negotiation with Vatican officials over how they could change church law to streamline the removal of guilty priests. Canonical due process rights for clergy emerged as a key issue. In a public meeting that November, bishops discussed plans for new church tribunals for accused priests who said they were innocent and would not leave ministry.

Bishops spent hundreds of millions of dollars on child protection programs and more on settlements with victims. But the damage was done. Trust in the bishops' judgment plummeted. So, when bishops in some dioceses announced the next round of parish closures, part of a consolidation that started years ago, angry parishioners didn't only protest and pray. They also hired canon lawyers.

"We just Googled it and got some information about who was available," said Patricia Schulte-Singleton, a 52-year-old parishioner who has helped coordinate resistance to church closures, including her own St. Patrick Catholic Church, throughout the Diocese of Cleveland. They hired a nun who was a canonist in Rhode Island.

Layman Peter Borre spearheaded a movement of canon law challenges to church closures in the Archdiocese of Boston where he lives. A semi-retired energy consultant who grew up in Italy and studied Latin in school, he began flying regularly to Rome to meet with a canon lawyer experienced in the Vatican court system.

Word of Borre's effort spread and parishioners in other dioceses contacted him about how they could petition to stay open. He estimates that two dozen appeals over the issue are currently before the Holy See. Some of the parishes in New York State, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, have won partial victories so far, keeping their cases alive at the Vatican, in what some canon lawyers described as landmark victories.

"The secular courts, in the United States at least, hate like hell to get between the flock and the bishops. They just won't touch it, " Borre said. "So by default, we're left with canon law."

Rejecting the idea that the church has entered a new age of litigiousness. Peters said petitions challenging decisions by bishops and other church officials have grown from a "tiny" to a "small" share of the church's total canonical actions. Still, the increase comes at a sensitive time, while bishops struggle to reassert their authority as teachers and leaders, and the church, like the culture around it, is more polarized.

"A lot of times you're delivering messages that maybe the bishops doesn't want to hear," Lagges said. "You have to go in and tell the bishop, `You can't do this.' Bishops don't like to hear that."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120116/ap_on_re/us_rel_litigious_church

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