Apparently, some banking execs do have a sense of shame. Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein and six other top executives have renounced their 2008 bonuses, saying they do not deserve them due to the company’s poor performance.

Little noticed here was the Sunday report in the NYT of how Treasury Secretary Paulson's bailout of AIG is connected to his former firm Goldman Sachs. Turns out that the failure of AIG would have cost Sachs $20 billion.

Both Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs lobbied the Federal Reserve to become bank holding companies over the weekend. Their bid was approved by the Fed, ending the era of the independent investment bank.

The Federal Reserve Board on Sunday approved, pending a statutory five-day antitrust waiting period, the applications of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to become bank holding companies.

While Lehman's assets are getting a true mark to market in bankruptcy court and Merrill and Bank of America are busy hammering out the details of their proposed merger, investors have turned their attention to Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.

Analyst William Tanona of Goldman Sachs issued a few downgrades this morning that sent financials into yet another tailspin. In particular, Mr. Tanona added Citigroup to its "Americas conviction sell" list, Goldman's version of the America's Cup of short-selling targets.

Goldman posted net income of $2.09 billion, or $4.58 a share, on revenues of $9.42 billion for the second quarter. Although this was a decline from the previous year's quarter, it beat analysts' lowered expectations and it actually reported earnings instead of losses, in contrast with Lehman.

Analysts at Bank of America cut earnings estimates for Goldman, Lehman and Morgan Stanley today.

The Queen has approved that Richard Hart Powers Esquire be appointed a Church Commissioner for a one year term until 31 December 2008 in succession to Robert William Heskett Esq on his resignation on 23 November 2007.

The news out today is that someone has been sending threatening letters to newspapers about impending mass murders at Goldman Sachs. Are the Goldman Sachs threats credible?