All things being equal, Goldman Sachs employees could find themselves even better off than they might have hoped. Following today’s announcement of not unimpressive second quarter results, it appears that the average Goldmanite is now on track to receive $773k per head this year, more than ever before.

Needless to say, no small portion of this comes from potentially risky trading activities. Fixed income trading revenues contributed 49% of the total and nearly tripled in Q209 vs. Q208; overall VaR rose 33%. However, the potential wealth of the average Goldman banker is not all down to fixed income trading: there were also signs of recovery in other sectors, most notably equity underwriting, where revenues soared from $48m in Q1 to $736m in Q2.

Goldman VaR hits all time record. (ZeroHedge)

Charlie Gasparino: Time for Goldman to become a hedge fund. (CNBC)

Goldman bonuses all round. (Alphaville)

Ms Whitney’s basic premise is that America – at a federal, state and local government level – needs to issue so much debt that Goldman simply can’t avoid profiting from this “tsunami” of issuance. (Alphaville)

EU to increase capital allocations for banks with pay policies that encourage risk taking. (Bloomberg)

Tougher pay targets for Stephen Hester. (Financial Times)

New independent research boutique to be launched in September. (Financial Times)

Bankers at JPMorgan (allegedly) made to track the hours of their day like lawyers and achieve 250 clicks on certain internal websites. (Dealbreaker)

You missed the party for senior bankers from Merrill, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, heads of European private equity firms, secretaries and mailroom staff. (Dealbook)