A 'blow-out' third-quarter (the best quarter in the firm's 138-year history) saw Goldman post a 79% increase in profits to $2.85bn. And this at a time when Goldman's rivals were all kicked in the legs big time by US subprime lending and LBO-related woes. Goldman has set aside $16.7bn for bonuses in the first 9 months of the year (more than enough for firm staff to club together and acquire rival Bear Stearns, which currently has a market cap of around $14.7), and, barring disaster in the final fews weeks of the firm's fiscal year (which ends 30th November), Goldman staff can look forward to record bonuses at year-end, and Blankfein might get a mouth-watering $75m!
Here's a reminder of what the big boys (and one girl) got in 2006:
Lloyd Blankfein - CEO & chairman, Goldman Sachs - $53.5m ($15.7m in restricted stock, $10.5m in options, $27.3m cash)
Gary Cohn & Jon Winkelreid - Co-presidents and co-COOS, Goldman Sachs - $52.4m each ($15.4m in restricted stock, $10.3m in options, $26.7m cash)
Stan O'Neal - Former CEO, Merrill Lynch - $47.3m ($28.8m in stock, $18.5m cash)
Jamie Dimon - CEO & Chairman, JP Morgan Chase - $44.4m ($1m salary, $13m bonus, $13m in stock awards, $17.4m in 'restorative options' which stemmed from his days as CEO of Bank One)
Dick Fuld - CEO - Lehman Brothers - $40.5m (including salary, bonus and options)
John Mack - CEO, Morgan Stanley - $40.2m ($36.2m in stock, options valued at $4m)
Dow Kim - Former co-head of global markets and investment banking, Merrill Lynch - $36.7m ($22.2m in stock, $14.5m cash)
Greg Fleming - co-head of global markets and investment banking, Merrill Lynch - $33.7m ($20.4m in stock, $13.3m cash)
Joseph Gregory - president and COO, Lehman Brothers - $33.06m (including salary, bonuses, stock and options)
Jim Cayne - CEO, Bear Stearns - $33.0m ($16.5m stock and options, $16.5m cash)
Zoe Cruz - co-President, Morgan Stanley - $29.7m ($17.3m in restricted stock, $1.9m in options, $10.3m cash)
Ken Lewis - Chairman & CEO - Bank of America - $27.9m ($1.5m salary, $11.7m restricted stock, $5m option awards, incentive comp $6.5m, $3m increase in pension value).
Chuck Prince - Former Chairman & CEO, Citigroup - $26m (includes salary $1m, $13.2m bonus, stock options $747,000, stock awards $10.6m)
Ken Thompson - President & CEO, Wachovia - $23.8m (includes $1.1m salary, $9.1m in stock awards, $8.1m in option awards and $5.2m in non equity plan comp).
Bruce Wasserstein - CEO, Lazard - $22m ($4.8m in salary, the balance in bonus and restricted stock)
Robert Sculley - co-President, Morgan Stanley - $19.8m ($11.6m in restricted stock, $1.3m options, $6.9m cash)
Henry Paulson - Former CEO, Goldman Sachs (6 months of 2006) - $18.7m bonus
Robert Rubin, Chairman Citi - $17.3m (including a bonus of $8.4m)
Robert Druskin - Ex-Chief Operating Officer, Citigroup (now head of the corporate and investment bank) - $15.7m (including an $8.1m bonus and $6.6m in stock awards)
William Osborn - Chairman, CEO, Northern Trust - $11m (including $1.03m salary, $4.3m option awards, stock awards $2m, $2.5m under a non-equity incentive plan).
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