Friday, June 20, 2014

If Teachers Were Like Goldman Sachs Traders...

Thanks Uncle Mikey and Auntie Carmen - a $1,000 bucks (which is actually more like $863 after taxes and union dues)*:



Dear Colleagues,

As you come to the end of this school year we both wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for all your hard work and dedication. We both know from experience how difficult the work you do is, and we take great pride in the thousands of people in New York City Public Schools who work hard each and every day to try to fulfill the dreams and hopes of over one million students. We want you to know you have our respect and our thanks.

We wanted to do more than tell you we appreciate your hard work - we wanted to take action to show you. So we have taken the first step in implementing the financial component of the recent collective bargaining agreement between the United Federation of Teachers and the New York City Department of Education which provides for a one time ratification bonus of $1,000 (pro-rated for part-time employees) to be issued to any member who was on payroll as of the date of ratification, June 3, 2014. We are pleased to inform you that pending the ratification by the Panel for Educational Priorities on June 24th, for most school-based UFT staff this payment is going to appear in either your direct deposit account on June 25th, or in a check delivery scheduled for June 26th. Other UFT staff such as nurses and therapists should receive this payment on July 3, and part time F status staff should be receiving their pro-rated portion on July 10.

We hope you enjoy the summer and return refreshed and ready for the next school year. We have much to work on together, including efforts around enhanced professional development and dedicated time for parent engagement, and we look forward to working together on these and many other initiatives next year. Thank you for your work this year to provide a quality education for all of our students to keep them on the road to success.

Sincerely,



Meanwhile back at Goldman Sachs: 

Here’s an instant classic for the Out-of-Touch Banker genre: a former Goldman Sachs mortgage bond trader clears $30 million in the decade following his college graduation, racks up an $8.25 million bonus in a single year, and sues because he thinks he deserves another $5 million.

Meet Deeb Salem, the G.S. alum who now works at the hedge fund GoldenTree Asset Management but once helped Goldman shed its toxic assets by betting against its clients and, as his lawyer boasted to the New York Post, shorting the mortgage market in 2006. Salem is suing his former employer, alleging that he had every right to expect a $13 million bonus in 2010.

Much of the drama focuses on Salem’s 2007 self-evaluation, which eventually made its way into the public record thanks to a 2011 Senate investigation into the bank’s habit of betting against its own clients. Salem alleges that he was punished for his honesty (the bank, perhaps upset that his review provided Congress with ammunition, warned him in 2010 for “extremely poor judgment”). But it also rewarded him with an $8.25 million bonus. The previous year, he had received a $15 million bonus—more than Goldman Sachs C.E.O. Lloyd Blankfein.

Don’t get the wrong idea about Salem, though. It’s not just the money that bothers him—it’s the filial shame he faced after telling his mother that he would be taking home a full $13 million in 2010.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority tossed out Salem’s case (one panelist called his claims “bullshit”), and he has since asked the New York State Supreme Court to intervene. The judge in the case has sealed the documents pending a hearing in the fall, according to Bloomberg News.
Salem believes he could have made much more had he left the firm earlier, and the scary thing is, he’s probably right—his group at Goldman brought in more than $1 billion a year during the period between 2007 and 2010. He was something of a star in a world where moving crappy products faster and more ruthlessly than your competitors yields billions of dollars of profits. But, as Goldman’s lawyer, Andrew Frackman of O’Melveny & Myers, said at a February arbitration hearing, Salem “made a ton of money.”

“He’s not entitled to more money simple because he would like to have been paid more,” Frackman said. “If that were the case, you’d have traders and bankers in here every day of the week.”

“Let’s be very clear: I was one of the most sought-after investment professionals in the mortgage industry,” Salem told the panel at the same hearing. He also compared himself to Michael Jordan in self-evaluations, writing, “I am as competitive as Michael Jordan. . . I want to win every time and I want to steamroll the opposition.”

Even Jordan would have to stand in awe of this guy’s ego.


Enjoy your $863 bucks after taxes and union dues, teachers...

* See comment here.

6 comments:

  1. It's actually $863. It's already up on portal.

    ReplyDelete
  2. If teachers were like Deeb Salem they would all lawyers and sue the UFT. That is not to say that Deeb Salem. That is not to say that Deeb Salem has a winning case. However, I think teachers have a winning case against the UFT for malfeasance and misrepresentation. Teachers are just too sheepish to challenge authority.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I agree with anonymous 5:36, but then again this vile thing being called a contract would not have passed if teachers were not a bunch of spineless, goodie two shoes, not willing to stand up for anything, let alone themselves, their families, and ultimately our society.

    ReplyDelete
  4. So 400 Brooklyn DA's get immediate 4% raises. Were teachers the doormat so other unions can begin to get their raises right away?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yes, on the backs of the teachers because Mulgrew knew he would get his rank and file to accept what no other municipal worker's union president would accept.
    AND get the older, senior teachers to leave, along with slaughtering the ATRs. Zooop, in one fell swoop, Mulgrew did what he claimed he would never accept from Bloomberg.

    ReplyDelete