Goldman to Award 30 Most Senior Executives in Special Restrictive Stock

Goldman Sachs' move today to pay its most senior executives in restricted stock was a desperate move to quell shareholders and the government. I think that the move is too little and too late.

It does not address the issue of everybody else in the firm, many of whom will still likely be walking away with payouts in the millions or more. This is cash coming out of the company. It is cash that the shareholders - many of whom bought in to the company at much higher levels - do not feel should be leaving the company. It is also cash that - no matter how hard these folks have worked - they wouldn't be getting this year if two successive administrations didn't put in place the aparatus for bailing out Goldman through agreeing to have AIG's counterparties made whole. Where is our collective memory? At the risk of sounding like a socialist or a Marxist, I am prepared to say that Goldman's profits this year belong to the government first.

The UK has now proposed a supertax of 50% this year to be levied on bank bonuses. Goldman Sachs can take its shareholders and the government for granted, but they cannot deny the government of its taxing authority. It is time for our government to follow suit.