Goldman Sachs

NEW YORK -- Money is not supposed to grow on trees. Unless you happen to work at Goldman Sachs. The investment bank reported earnings yesterday that left jaws agape on Wall Street. Quarterly profit soared 93 percent. The bank earned nearly as much per share in 2006 as it had in the past two years combined. Immediately after the results were released, they were labeled the best ever by an American investment bank. Investment banking earnings are often proxies for the health of the American and global economy.

WASHINGTON -- Henry M. Paulson Jr. took over yesterday as Treasury secretary and as President Bush's top economic adviser, filling out a new economic team with a more pragmatic cast for the final 2 1/2 years of this administration. Bush, who wooed Paulson from his post as chairman of Goldman Sachs, said yesterday that the former executive would have a central role in setting the agenda and implied that the Treasury Department would regain some of the power it lost to White House advisers during Bush's first term.

The last man who went from being head of Goldman Sachs to Treasury secretary helped set the stage for a balanced budget, low interest rates and an economic boom. But Henry M. Paulson Jr., the Goldman Sachs chairman and CEO nominated yesterday to replace John W. Snow at Treasury, is unlikely to leave such a legacy. Yes, he has the smarts, integrity and independence of his 1990s predecessor, Robert E. Rubin. But the timing is all wrong. The Bush administration is too weak and distracted, too long in the tooth and too deep in the hole.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush accepted the long-expected resignation of Treasury Secretary John W. Snow yesterday and nominated a high-powered Wall Street figure, Goldman Sachs Chairman Henry M. Paulson Jr., to replace him. Snow became the top-ranking official to leave the administration in a midterm shuffle that began when White House budget director Joshua Bolten became chief of staff two months ago. Snow joined CIA Director Porter J. Goss and White...

NEW YORK -- Shares of MasterCard Inc., whose initial public offering raised less than its backers had hoped, soared 18 percent in the first day of trading. MasterCard surged $7 yesterday to close at $46 on the New York Stock Exchange. The world's No. 2 credit-card company raised $2.39 billion Wednesday in its IPO and priced its shares at $39 each, a dollar less than its minimum forecast. "We've seen some choppiness in the market in the last few weeks, and ultimately the market decides what a company is worth," Robert Selander, chief executive officer of MasterCard, said in an interview.

NEW YORK -- Aramark Corp., the food-service company that runs concessions at Oriole Park at Camden Yards and other sports venues, received a $5.8 billion takeover offer from a group led by its chairman and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The group, which also includes JPMorgan Chase & Co., Thomas H. Lee Partners LP and Warburg Pincus LLC, bid $32 a share, Aramark said yesterday. That's 14 percent above the Philadelphia company's closing price Friday. The company's shares rose $5.79, or nearly 21 percent, to close at $33.90 on the New York Stock Exchange.

HOUSTON -- Defense lawyers in the Enron Corp. case completed their cross-examination of star government witness Andrew S. Fastow yesterday, assailing his credibility on multiple fronts but without seeming to score a clean knockout punch. In four days on the witness stand, Fastow, Enron's former chief financial officer, acknowledged repeatedly that he had secretly stolen millions of dollars from Enron, was driven by greed and had lied to private lawyers and federal investigators investigating the energy-trading company's collapse in late 2001.

Under Armour Inc., the Baltimore sports apparel company, will make its debut as a publicly traded company today after selling shares to its underwriters last night for a higher price than it had anticipated. The initial public offering was priced at $13 a share last night, according to a source familiar with the sale. The company had first projected $7.50 to $9.50 a share, then revised the estimate to $10 to $12, an indication that the underwriters foresee strong demand. Trading begins today on the Nasdaq stock market under the ticker symbol UARM.

Under Armour Inc., the Baltimore sports apparel maker, plans to launch Thursday its initial public offering aimed at raising $72.7 million on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The IPO will make about 12 million shares available to the public for an estimated $7.50 to $9.50 a share. The sale will include 2.5 million shares owned by Under Armour founder Kevin A. Plank, several members of his family and other corporate insiders. Plank would retain about a third of the company's outstanding shares and would have voting control by virtue of exclusive ownership of a special class of shares.

CRAWFORD, Texas - President Bush expressed new confidence in the economy yesterday, declaring that his policies have laid "the foundation for sustained growth." But he said he was concerned that growth could be slowed by the rising costs of energy and health care. "In terms of ... the effect interest rates will have on our economy, I think we're more concerned about energy prices and health care prices," Bush said. "Those are the two areas that we see as having a greater effect on ... the future of economic growth."