"Goldman Sachs profits hit by tax, fine and poor trading"

"Goldman Sachs has reported a sharp fall in second-quarter profits after being hit by the UK's bonus tax, a US fine and poor trading revenues. Net income came in at $613m (£404m), down from $3.4bn a year ago. But even ignoring the $600m accrued tax in the UK, and the US regulator's record $550m fine, underlying profits fell by nearly half. The result was driven by a drop in revenues from Goldman's traders, which fell 39% from a year ago."

However the bit that gets me...

"Accrued employee compensation for the quarter - which includes the bonus pool - was $3.8bn, down 43% from a year ago.

This means that average accrued pay per employee at the firm for the first six months of the year was $273,000." -- BBC News website.

And so it goes on... pay out after pay out after pay out. Goldman Sachs and the other banks of their ilk just seem to be completely immune to the misery and poverty inflicted on everyone else... and they don't give a sh*t.

That's capitalism for you!

Rant over.