2009-10-21 Goldman SachsÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s Griffiths Says Inequality Helps All

2009-10-21 Caroline Binham Bloomberg.com \Goldman Sachs\Brian Griffiths\trickle-down economics\2009 economic crisis\economic disparity http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a8upOpH5Q3Tw Goldman Sachs’s Griffiths Says Inequality Helps All Goldman Sachs’s Griffiths Says Inequality Helps All  A Goldman Sachs International adviser defended compensation in the finance industry as his company plans a near-record year for pay, saying the spending will help boost the economy.

"We have to tolerate the inequality as a way to achieve greater prosperity and opportunity for all," Brian Griffiths, who was a special adviser to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, said 2009-10-20 at a panel discussion at St. Paul's Cathedral in London. The panel's discussion topic was, "What is the place of morality in the marketplace?"

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., based in New York, set aside $16.7 billion for compensation and benefits in the first nine months of 2009, up 46 percent from a year earlier and enough to pay each worker $527,192 for the period. The amount set aside this year is just shy of the all-time high $16.9 billion allocated in the first three quarters of 2007. Goldman Sachs spokesman Michael DuVally in New York declined to comment. So giving money to people who desperately need it helps society less than giving money to people who already have plenty -- otherwise known as "trickle-down economics".

&ldquo;"We have to tolerate the inequality as a way to achieve greater prosperity and opportunity for all," [said Goldman Sachs International adviser] Brian Griffiths, who was [also] a special adviser to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher...&rdquo;   