Goldman and the Theatre of the Absurd

Props go out to Susanne Craig at WSJ.

Goldman has added consultants and temporary workers to their employee base, some shareholders believe to dilute the per share bonus number that will be reported. Craig, thus, reports the current speculation on the number this way:

So far, Goldman has shown no signs of backing down to anger over the firm's pay and benefits, on track to hit a record high of about $717,000 per employee, consultant and temporary worker for 2009...

Craig's wording nicely highlights Goldman's theatre of the absurd attempt to link $700 thousand bonuses with temp workers.

That said, I have never quite seen an attack on a firm from the many directions that Goldman is facing. The media, shareholders, the blogsphere and the general public, even Saturday Night Live. There has to be some heavy recruiting going on behind the scenes of the real producers at Goldman who must be sick of the antics of top management, who think the only way to generate revenue is to play footsie with Obama and Geithner. Why would a serious producer want to be associated which such nonsense?