With all this talk about bonuses still in the air, attention has understandably turned to Goldman Sachs and what kind of payouts staff there can expect this year-end.

Unless things fall off a cliff in the fourth-quarter, Goldman employees are likely to rake in around an average of $700,000 each in compensation this year, making it up there with the best years ever. And this clearly presents Goldman with a bit of a PR problem - how do you justify such huge bonuses at a time when Main Street continues to suffer, and so close to the global bailout of the financial system ? The answer, of course, is that you don't even try.

You don't try and make the argument that the fate of Wall Street and Main Street are interlinked, and that good bonuses at the likes of Goldman will trickle down and help benefit the overall economy. Nobody wants to listen to this (especially not the naysayers). You don't, as some have suggested, make a $1bn donation to charity to try and assuage the criticism - Goldman shareholders will surely be a bit miffed if this happened, and any such move will be regarded as a cynical ploy to try and get away with large bonus payouts. No, you simply divvy up the money and take the flack on the chin.

Having said all this, Goldman will be keen to demonstrate that it is linking bonuses to long-term performance, and the smart money expects the firm to pay its senior executives out all in deferred equity, with the rest of staff getting 25% in cash and 75% in stock.

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