America must rescue the bonuses at Goldman Sachs.

Goldman's Pain: To its credit the government has thus far done pretty much all it can to prevent any suffering inside the firm. Its extreme sensitivity to Goldman's pain is the only way to explain its actions thus far. But its approach has been crude; it has been using a sledgehammer to do a scalpel's job. For instance, by banning the short-selling of shares in the amazing number of Wall Street-related companies that America apparently can not live without (Moody's Corp.?), it may have prevented Goldman from being driven out of business. Certainly, the ban caused Goldman's share price to fall less than it otherwise would have.

But this wise policy ignores the fact that Goldman Sachs, perhaps more than any other financial firm, makes a lot of money from the short-selling of Wall Street-related stocks -- by enabling its hedge-fund clients to do it.

Bold Strokes: Goldman needs any revenue it can get its hands on right now. A wiser policy would have been to disallow the short-selling of Goldman's shares alone, and let the other 925 financial-related companies collapse. Goldman was already well-positioned to devour little pieces of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and American International Group Inc. If other firms were allowed to suffer a bit more, Goldman would consume their juiciest bits too, and become stronger for it. (Come to think of it, Goldman should just get it over with and buy Moody's so it can rate its own securities.) Perhaps its share price might cease to fall.

This points to what amounts to a character flaw inside the Securities and Exchange Commission: fear of the bold stroke. Clearly it wasn't enough to ban the short sale of Goldman's shares, as those shares resumed their downhill journey. What's needed is a broader ban on pessimism of any sort. Worrisome newspaper articles, whispered conversations, mildly skeptical thoughts, anything that might adversely affect Goldman's share price: all these, too, must be outlawed.

Paulson's Payday: Lately, for instance, I have heard several hedge-fund managers gossiping about Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. One of the things they say is that, in leaving Goldman for government service, Paulson made the greatest trade of his life. Not only was he required to sell his half-billion dollars in Goldman stock near the high, but also, as Treasury Secretary, he was exempt from capital-gains taxes. By getting out of Goldman while the getting was good, the guy may have doubled his net worth.

These hedge-fund managers are the very same people who just a few days ago were shorting Goldman's shares and now have nothing better to do with their time than gossip about an esteemed Goldman alumnus. Shame on them. Their idle chit-chat is just the sort of negativity our government needs to ban.