Goldman Sachs ready to hand out £7bn salary and bonus package... after its £6bn bail-out!!!

Goldman Sachs is on course to pay its top City bankers multimillion-pound bonuses - despite asking the U.S. government for an emergency bail-out. 

The struggling Wall Street bank has set aside £7billion for salaries and 2008 year-end bonuses, it emerged yesterday. 

Each of the firm's 443 partners is on course to pocket an average Christmas bonus of more than £3million. 

The size of the pay pool comfortably dwarfs the £6.1billion lifeline which the U.S. government is throwing to Goldman as part of its £430billion bail-out. 

As Washington pours money into the bank, the cash will immediately be channelled to Goldman's already well-heeled employees. 

News of the firm's largesse will revive the anger over the 'rewards for failure' culture endemic in the world of high finance. More...

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6. Huge bonuses paid to City bankers was a factor in the credit crunch...