It's Good to be the Pirate King

Goldman $acks America, as Condi finally figures out who is the real Big Time Dick

[via Ian Welsh via Spocko: and reported nowhere in the USA]

...Goldman Sachs is on course to pay its top City bankers multimillion-pound bonuses - despite asking the U.S. government for an emergency bail-out.

The struggling Wall Street bank has set aside £7billion for salaries and 2008 year-end bonuses, it emerged yesterday.

Each of the firm's 443 partners is on course to pocket an average Christmas bonus of more than £3million.

The size of the pay pool comfortably dwarfs the £6.1billion lifeline which the U.S. government is throwing to Goldman as part of its £430billion bail-out.

As Washington pours money into the bank, the cash will immediately be channelled to Goldman's already well-heeled employees...

That's an $11 billion bonus package after a $9 billion bailout in American English. After all, it was American taxpayer dollars given to an officially American financial institution.

Henry Waxman is the only one in Washington not too preoccupied or downright comatose to ask questions, but you won't hear much about that in the US press either.