One of them was put on display yesterday, as a matter of fact -- a news development that had me howling in disbelief and awe of the evil genius of Goldman Sachs (GS).

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Surely you have heard by now that the Goldman partners have decided to pay their top brass in stock instead of cash bonuses this year. So do you think it is any coincidence that GS shares have mysteriously declined recently? I mean, really? After one of the most profitable years of all time due to the company's involvement in dozens of sovereign and corporate debt and equity deals, and its successful prop-desk trading of the recent volatility?

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If you had the ability to drive down the shares of stock that you were about to receive, wouldn't you do it? Goldman doesn't actually have to sell its stock to drive its value down; all its treasury department needs to do is stop supporting it during the day with buybacks. It's not improper, it's just smart business. You can see how much GS has fallen compared to an industrial company like 3M (MMM) in the chart above. Since mid-October, GS is down 12% while 3M is up 9%. I seriously doubt that the pounding of GS shares relative to 3M is occurring on the basis of fundamentals; it's most likely all structural.

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