$9 Billion Dollars! Â
That’s how much Goldman Sachs (GS) took in in revenues in the second quarter.  They then used $1.25Bn of it (14%) to buy back their own stock at an average cost of $161 per share and reduced the total number of shares by 17% which allowed them to “beat” estimates by earning $4.10 per share vs $3.70 last year (10.8% more).
That’s right – it’s a scam!  The same scam GS advises it’s client companies to do with their own stocks to APPARENTLY inflate their earnings while, in reality, earnings are fairly flat.  The same scam, incidentally, GS had the entire country of Greece do – before that whole thing collapsed and took the Global economy with it a few years ago! Â
By trading heavily from inside this fishbowl, GS was able to bump up their Investment and Lending Revenues by 46%, to $2.07Bn and all those little moves allowed GS employees to take 46% of the profits in compensation – up 6% from last year at $3.92Bn, which is really cool as GS only has 32,600 employees – so that’s $1.2M per employee but, somehow, I think the top 326 (0.1%) get a bit more than the other 32,274, don’t you?Â
You would think GS shareholders would be angry that 50% of their revenues go to compensation. Â After all, a hedge fund only takes 20% of the profits as salary (and that plus 2% of AUM also covers the cost of all operations)Â but GS, after taking $3.92Bn, drops just $2Bn to the bottom line for their investors or, in other words, GS is like a hedge fund that takes 66% of the profits! Â
Still, with a p/e of 10, that 33% bone they throw investors is enough to keep them happy but, as with everything else, consider the conditions under which GS is able to make $6Bn in salaries and profits on $9Bn in revenues – Endless Free Money from the Fed, a stock market fueled by Mergers and Buybacks using the same Free Money, massive market manipulation by Central Banks around the World – many of whom are run by former GS employees and most of whom are advised by GS.  Perhaps this is as good as it gets for them? Â
