Goldman Sachs Earns $3.19B

Goldman Sachs announced Thursday that its profits jumped to $3.19 billion in the third quarter, nearly quadruple what they were a year ago. The spike was driven by returns on corporate investments and trading revenues. What will Goldman do with all that good fortune? For starters, it's set aside $5.35 billion for compensation and benefits, setting the company on track for record end-of-year payments to executives. Despite the fact that Goldman repaid its $10 billion bailout in June, the executive payments may draw scrutiny from lawmakers and ire from the public, as the debate continues on whether Wall Street's culture of bonuses contributed to the financial collapse. Meanwhile, Citigroup logged a more modest $101 million profit, still remarkable considering that it had been expected to post a loss.