January 21, 2011

So, now we know about the $15bn-plus 2010 pay package for Goldman Sachs partners and employees [1]. The top rungs will get their many millions each [2], with lesser and lesser amounts going down the GS hierarchy. The mass of its more than 35,000 employees will, as usual, get much, much less than the top. In addition, the appreciation of Goldman’s share prices likewise adds billions to employees who got stock options, which were likewise distributed very unequally throughout the firm. The unequal division of rewards within Goldman Sachs mirrors and mocks the far larger social divide it feeds.

Unraveling the confusion behind microcredit: how some models help alleviate poverty, while others exploit the poor to make the rich richer.

With a new Republican Congress falling all over itself to hand corporations whatever they want, it was only a matter of time before some politician turned up in the pages of the Wall Street Journal, breathlessly describing the “dazzling” and “path-breaking” nature of the free market, and vowing to get rid of regulations that have placed “unreasonable” burdens on businesses.