After a record earnings year—and rumors of a $100 million bonus—Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein is receiving a $9 million bonus in deferred stock for 2009. Some on Wall Street think it's a "sign of restraint"—the Wall Street Journal characterizes it as Goldman "bowing" to criticism about executive pay.
A compensation consultant told the WSJ that Blankfein's bonus "is certainly significantly lower than people anticipated," but said people would still be pissed at him and Goldman Sachs, "If you are outside looking in, they still aren't beloved, because they likely eating your lunch and breakfast." Indeed: Vermont Congressman Peter Welch (D) said, "It is only in their world where you can come within an eyelash of destroying the economy and then reward yourself with what you call a 'modest' $9 million pay day."
Blankfein received a $68 million bonus in 2007 and many had expected that his 2009 reward would top that, since 2009 was Goldman Sachs' most profitable ever. Blankfein had acknowledged some responsibility of his company's involvement in the global economic meltdown last year, but he also raised ire when saying his firm was doing "God's work." Now Blankfein's "small" bonus is being compared to JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon's, which is around $17 million (about $8 million in stock, no cash).
