Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

It was once thing when politicians and members of the media were haranguing Goldman Sachs over its plans to pay out massive year-end bonuses. But now shareholders are getting into the act, too, a move that shows "how anger over its big-money culture is spilling into the ranks of investors who typically shy away from debates over Wall Street pay." Naturally, these giant mutual funds aren't speaking up on principle. (They'd like to benefit a bit more from the firm's record earnings.) And whether they really plan to do anything about it is up in the air. But there's an indication that all the PR troubles that the firm has faced this week—and this may go down as the worst week in the firm's history from a public relations standpoint—are about to vanish instantly.More

JPMorgan Splits It Down the Middle | Goldman Sachs decided against holding a holiday party this year. Condé Nast revealed yesterday that it plans to proceed with its annual fête, albeit at a slightly less expensive restaurant. Now JPMorgan has weighed in. The party is on this year, which is certainly nice to hear. Not as nice: It will take place in the company cafeteria. [Dealbreaker]

Pay Raise at Citigroup! | Citigroup has announced that it's raising salaries for several top execs at the partially government-owned bank. Fortunately, the list does not include Vikram Pandit, Citi's incompetent CEO. He'll continue to collect $1 a year for his services, which is still probably a dollar too much. [AP]

Lloyd Blankfein: 'I'm Sorry' | Ten days ago, John Reed apologized for his role in creating Citigroup. Now Goldman Sachs chief Lloyd Blankfein is apologizing for anything Goldman did to precipitate the financial crisis: "We participated in things that were clearly wrong and have reason to regret," Blankfein said at a conference today. "We apologize." Then he stunned the crowd by announcing that Goldman would be turning over its fourth quarter profits to feed America's neediest, which would still leave the firm with about $16 billion to pay out year-end bonuses. Just kidding! He's not that sorry! [Bloomberg]

Snoop Dogg Talks Bidness | Did you happen to catch Maria Bartiromo's interview with Snoop Dogg on CNBC yesterday? (He was in town to participate in something called Global Entrepreneurship Week and rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange yesterday.) After the jump, listen to Snoop as he discusses his "brand" and tackles questions like whether you need venture capital financing to start a career as a rapper (you don't!) and whether he had any difficulty "breaking into the culture of hip hop" (he didn't!). More

There's good news, bad news, more bad news and more good news for Goldman Sachs today. Let's review, shall we?

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The recession is over and America's economic recovery is well underway! How do we know this to be true? Because the NASDAQ "has brought its confetti machine out of the closet, where it had been collecting dust," that's how. And there's no better indicator than that, is there? [NYT/Bits]

Goldman Sachs is on track to turn in its most profitable year ever, and the bank's near collapse last fall—along with the financial system as a whole—is quickly becoming a distant memory for Goldman chief Lloyd Blankfein. So why is he giving less money to charity than he did before the downturn?More

Cioffi, Tannin Go Free | Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, the former Bear Stearns execs charged with conspiracy, securities fraud and wire fraud in connection with the collapse of the two hedge funds they managed, were acquitted on all counts in federal court this afternoon. So much for the "first major test of a U.S. effort to obtain convictions tied to the subprime mortgage crisis and subsequent recession"! [Reuters]

The Good Times Roll for JPMorgan | Looking for a job on Wall Street? Great news! Two weeks after JPMorgan revealed plans to hire an additional 1,000 brokers (a move that was quickly followed by the announcement that JPMorgan chief Jamie Dimon's dad was joining his son's firm) comes word that the bank is going on another hiring binge.

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The Lord's Work Pays Nicely | Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan Chase are all on track to pay record bonuses this year, as you've probably heard. "The firms—the three biggest banks to exit the Troubled Asset Relief Program—will hand out $29.7 billion in bonuses, according to analysts' estimates. That's up 60 percent from last year and more than the previous high of $26.8 billion in 2007." But as Goldman chief Lloyd Blankfein explained to the London Times over the weekend, they're doing "God's work," and you can't put a price on that, can you? [Bloomberg]

Citigroup Was One Big Mistake | If you're a Citigroup shareholder and you've watched your investment in the bank tumble into the abyss over the past year, take heart. John Reed, the man partly responsible for creating the dysfunctional financial supermarket that Citigroup turned into by merging Citicorp with Sandy Weill's Travelers Group in 1998, is really, really sorry. "We learn from our mistakes," says Reed. Feel better now? [Bloomberg]

Flu Flap | Did you hear that a handful of large Wall Street banks have been getting the swine flu vaccine to give to their "high-risk" employees, even though area hospitals have yet to receive it or are now running low on their supplies? A little public pressure seems to be paying off. Morgan Stanley says it will return its 1,000 doses to the city health department since some hospitals are still without the vaccine. But not every firm is following suit. Goldman Sachs is still "more important than you are," reports the Wall Street Journal. But you'd probably figured that out already. [WSJ]

Insider Trading Scandal Expands | Another 14 people have been implicated in the growing investigation into insider trading by hedge funds. A number of the people indicted today have ties to Raj Rajaratnam, the founder of Galleon Group who was arrested a couple of weeks ago; all of them, it's safe to say, just had their days ruined. [WSJ]

Golden Goldman | More great news for Goldman Sachs employees: "A whopping 36 times in the third quarter, the firm generated more than $100 million in revenue in a single day just from trading stocks, bonds and other instruments. That translates to 55% of the time, considering there were 65 trading days last quarter. The number of days Goldman traders lost money? Just one." [Crain's]