Alistair Darling goes on the offensive against Goldman Sachs
Alistair Darling has openly criticised US banking giant Goldman Sachs over plans to pay billions of dollars in staff bonuses at a time when the UK economy is struggling and investment markets are booming. While Goldman Sachs itself may not have received any state funding from the UK government, it has received substantial financial assistance from the US authorities, and indeed the UK financial markets as a whole have received billions upon billions of pounds of financial assistance from taxpayers.
This is yet another government offensive against bonuses despite the fact that only a few weeks ago they were patting themselves on the back after apparently agreeing a deal with leading UK banks. It would appear that the US authorities have not been as aggressive in trying to reduce bonus payments which have not gone down well in the public domain. It is unlikely that Goldman Sachs will take any significant notice of Alistair Darling's comments and many believe this is more a public relations exercise than anything else.
In many ways the UK government has been guilty of "being seen to do the right thing" rather than taking any firm action behind the scenes.
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