A Corporate burden

From the Financial Times,

"...Goldman's pre-tax profit margins, at 29 per cent, were 10 percentage points higher than the average for other financial firms in the Fortune 500 this decade, and substantially higher than in other industries such as energy, healthcare and consumer staples.
The average for Fortune 500 companies was 8 per cent."

Goldman's 30,000 employees can look forward to an average of $650,000 in compensation.

I wish them well.

"When this is, that is.
From the arising of this comes the arising of that.
When this isn't, that isn't.
From the cessation of this comes the cessation of that."

The New Casinos

Wall Street knows no excess. The International Herald Tribune today reports that:

"Combined, the top 50 hedge fund managers last year earned $29 billion. That figure represents the managers' own pay and excludes the compensation of their employees."

That's $580 million apiece, though some "earned" more, some less. The median earnings for an American family over the same period — $60,500.