Are Bankers Worth Their Big Paychecks?

Wall Streeters argue that their big paychecks benefit us. Sometimes that's right. But not lately

Roy Hsu / Getty

With Goldman Sachs employees on track for their best bonus year ever , the investment bank's executives have been making the case that their bounty is good for all of us. "We contribute to growth," CEO Lloyd Blankfein said at a breakfast put on by FORTUNE. "Once the economy starts to turn, we get very involved." In a discussion about morality and markets at St. Paul's Cathedral in London, Goldman Sachs International vice chairman Brian Griffiths, a former adviser to Margaret Thatcher, described giant paychecks for bankers as an economic necessity. "We have to tolerate the inequality as a way...

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