Investment Bank Death Watch - S&P Lowering Outlook on Goldman and Lehman

Following on the heels of the Bear Sterns debacle, Standard and Poor's has downgraded Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers to negative outlook from stable, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. So Goldman and Lehman are now joining the party that Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley arrived at earlier.

"We believe that negative rating outlooks are broadly appropriate for the independent securities firms, reflecting the potential for a more substantial decline in profitability from capital-market activities," S&P said in a report whose principal authors are managing director Scott Sprinzen and analyst Diane Hinton. "Our current expectation is that net revenues could decline 20%-30% year-on-year" after write-downs."

So, I'm just dying to know how much in bonuses were paid out to the executives and managing partners at these firms in 2007. Does anyone have those numbers.

Amy Alkon has a great post I just don't understand welfare for bankers. You should go read it.

Also, check out Megan McArdle on Bear Sterns.

Oviously the Wall Street bankers won't be stepping up to buy the mega yacht any time soon.