Risk pays

New York Times reports that Goldman Sachs’ chief CEO Lloyd C. Blankfein—and other Goldman executives—will collect $111.3 million in stock, delayed compensation from 2009 and 2007. The CEO gets a $24 million piece of this pie.

Meanwhile Goldman Sachs second-quarter profit of $1.85 a share fell short of analysts’ expectations of $2.27 a share, according to Reuters reports.

Featured on Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Awards website

Pink Slips and Parting Gifts has been featured on the Amazon.com's Breakthrough Novel Award website. Scan Literary Fiction for the book along with some good literary company.

CEO defined: Compensation Exceeding Others

From the Associated Press

May 6

The typical pay package for the head of a company in the Standard & Poor's 500 was $9 million in 2010....That was 24 percent higher than a year earlier, reversing two years of declines.

The recession apparently has little impact at the top of big business

Wall Street gets rich, but Main Street doesn't follow

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich examines the soaring stock market and why this wealth surge hasn't helped middle America. Mr. Reich writes in his blog:

In theory, at least, the extraordinary bull market should be making Americans feel far wealthier than they felt two years ago. So they should be spending far more, and that spending should be fueling far more job growth than it is.

Why hasn't it happened? In reality, the vast majority of Americans don't feel wealthier because they hold few if any shares of stock. In fact most feel poorer because their major asset is their homes -- now worth 20 to 40 percent less than they were worth in 2007 (and there's no sign of a rebound in housing).

The Street's bull market over the last two years has seriously enriched only the wealthiest 5 percent of Americans who hold the lion's share of stock.

In the news....

NEW YORK, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group (GS.N) tripled Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein's base salary and awarded him $12.6 million of stock, even after the bank's net income plunged last year.

Fun facts: debt-to-capital ratio

What is a corporate debt-to-capital ratio and why shouldn't I fall asleep when reading about it?

In the simplest terms a debt-to-capital ratio is a company's total debt divided by its total capital. The higher the ratio, the more leveraged the company is and the more it relies on debt financing. According to the financial website Investopedia.com "A company with high debt-to-capital ratios, compared to a general or industry average, may show weak financial strength because the cost of these debts may weigh on the company and increase its default risk."

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

No wait! This is important. Pink Slips and Parting Gifts is a story about a company with a moderate debt-to-capital ratio which was gobbled up by by a competitor. The competitor borrowed heavily to make the acquisition. Then its debt-to-equity ratio shot sky-high. Add a collapsing real-estate market, plus a recession, and what do you get? A more familiar financial term: bankruptcy.

Good news for staying awake while reading—Pink Slips and Parting Gifts is less about financial "arcania" and more about the human fallout of corporate financial failures.

The ghost of Howard Hughes

As part of its rebirth from bankruptcy, Chicago's General Growth Properties split itself itself into two companies. General Growth Properties (GGP) will continue as the nation's second largest shopping mall operator, but the company spun-off its portfolio of planned residential communities, many of which GGP acquired when it bought Columbia, Maryland's The Rouse Company in 2004.

Many observers credit the purchase of Rouse as part of the reason for General Growth's bankruptcy because of the huge amount of debt that GGP took on in the transaction.

The name of the GGP spin-off was ever so familiar to those who followed the Rouse-General Growth saga. The new company operates as Howard Hughes Corporation. Hughes was itself purchased by Rouse in 1996 as Rouse expanded its presence in the then-hot Las Vegas market.

And what does this have to do with our book? The personal effects of millionaire aviator Howard Hughes play a background role in Pink Slips and Parting Gifts.