Competition Is Sin

Looking at the chart of Goldman Sachs in search of an entry point long or short brings to mind a story of John D. Rockefeller. Rockefeller was putting on his personal golf course when he received news that Standard Oil had been broken up. When asked what he was going to do, he said that he would "buy Standard Oil, buy Standard Oil". See what Ole John D. already knew was that the fix was in and he was still in charge of each head of the eight headed Standard Oil hydra monster so, he was still in charge. It's not exactly brain surgery.

Years later son David Rockefeller would be credited with the phrase" competition is sin. In that context Goldman Sachs, steeped in the religion that "Competition Is Sin", has reached nirvana.

The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times both slap the news on A1, with the WSJ headlining that “Goldman Blinks on Bonuses,” implying it’s backing down on pay, when it’s doing no such thing. The Times’s hed is not much better: “Goldman’s Curbs on Bonuses Aim to Quell Uproar.” That implies that Goldman is curbing or cutting pay.

It’s doing no such thing. In fact, the move in all likelihood will increase the already-astronomical amount Goldman executives—and I do mean executives: these supposedly A1-worthy changes affect only the top thirty employees—will get this year. That’s because the big move, such that it is, is that Goldman is going to pay its top 30 people not in cash and stock, but in only stock—shares that they can’t cash in for five years.

Let's read the operative sentence again:

Goldman is going to pay its top 30 people not in cash and stock, but in only stock—shares that they can’t cash in for five years

Yep, it wasn't brain surgery then and it ain't now, buy Goldman Sachs, buy Goldman.