Lunchtime Links: There is no alternative to Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs is unbowed. Fabrice Tourre and Matt Taibbi are mostly forgotten and The Firm appears to be positioning itself for eternal investment banking greatness.

Bloomberg points out that Goldman is focusing its business while US rivals diversify. In the 12 months to June 30th, it derived 75% of its revenues from investment banking and trading, compared to 54% at Morgan Stanley and 27% at JPMorgan.

Goldman is top of the list of M&A advisors globally and in the US, and in Europe, for the first nine months of 2010. And although this quarter may be challenging, analysts think 2011 will be infinitely better. Figures from Dealogic (cited by JPMorgan analysts) suggest Goldman's 2011 M&A revenue pipeline currently stands at $800m. Closest rivals JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley are stuck in the range of $650m.

The owner of Goldman's Peterborough Court building has gone into administration. (Sunday Times)

Everyone wants to hire senior M&A bankers. (Financial News)

Citigroup has hired a Morgan Stanley banker to run its Russian equities business. (Bloomberg)

Despite making commodities redundancies in the UK, JPMorgan now wants to buy RBS's US power trading book. (Financial Times)

Geoghegan will receive a 1.42m pay-off when he leaves next March and will be paid a further 200,000 for three months as a consultant. (Telegraph)

Geoghegan described the pairing of Flint and Gulliver as an "awesome combination" and said: "Let's see the next team get on with it." (Guardian)

John Thornton plans to step down at HSBC. (Financial Times)

Last week, Stuart Gulliver was telling associates that if he was passed over as head of HSBC he could well move back to his beloved Hong Kong, his home in the mid-1990s, to start a hedge fund. (Financial Times)

100,000 is the most unfortunate amount of money you could earn: it puts you in a social bracket where you're earning significantly more than most people but significantly less than the truly rich. (The Times)

Ex-Lehman strategist now selling ice cream. (Bloomberg)

After the rioting and disorder during the 2010 winter of discontent we shall have a slim majority government run by a Miliband or two. (Fintag)

Only 3% of gifted children are conventionally successful. (SundayTimes)

Divorce rates and occupations... (Overcomingbias)