Goldman's announcement of vesting its top 30 executives with 'at risk' stock is done in hopes of deflecting some criticism leveled at the firm over its compensation policies. The thought of the firm's top boys taking a risk on their own stock is probably making them all nauseous. How will they survive without an immediate piece of the transactional cash bonanza the firm produces each year, a large part of what the firm mistakenly calls trading profits. You see, trading is trading and charging for trading, well, is not trading. The good news for those at the top is that the stock is cheap at current levels.
The continued argument concerning the losing of top talent at investment banks if they are punished by compensation restrictions never is quite able to get traction. Pay me or I will quit is just another form of whining and Congress does not care. Everyone knows that if the last dime in the world were tossed on the ground, two hundred bankers would dive for it.
Harvard announced it was shutting down the the construction of its high-tech project which was to open in 2011. The project was initiated by previous Harvard president Lawrence Summers when the world of the upside had no end in sight. Now Harvard's endowment is down to its last $26 billion but in a larger way points to the long term problems of the ability to generate wealth for all market participants. If Harvard cannot get on track with its sea of generational connections, the greater population's adjustments may be much worse.
