Have Cake, Eat It Too, Phonus Dept. 0

Bloomberg reports that Goldman Sachs will pay the 30 members of its executive committee with “restricted stock options” that won’t show on the books until they vest:

The awards will consist of so-called shares-at-risk that start vesting next year and can’t be sold for five years, the New York-based firm said yesterday. Because the expense isn’t recorded until they vest, the firm avoids incurring an immediate cost, said Robert Willens, founder of Robert Willens LLC, which advises investors on accounting and tax rules.

“That’s just what they needed to make this year look better,” said Willens, a former managing director at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. “The first charge won’t be until 2010, so this will definitely reduce their compensation expense. These 30 people make a disproportionate amount of the compensation.”

It keeps the phonuses off the books for a while, while still letting persons get paid obscene amounts for moving piles of money back and forth, while creating nothing.

Aside:

Here’s the other side of phonuses:

I know someone whose retirement was in stock options. This person added real value to the economy by producing real stuff for a company that actually makes things that people want and use every day and, in doing so, she rose to an executive position and retired very nicely cushioned, thank you.

The company from which she retired fell for Wall Street’s financial games, the bubble burst, and her retirement went away. The stock options were for prices higher than the stock itself, so she could not cash them when they matured.

The three-card Monte dealers banksters win as long as they control the deal. The marks lose. And, as far as they are concerned, we are all marks.