To put Goldman deal in context..

The $550-million settlement with the SEC works out to 2 percent of the $27 billion in cash and short-term securities that Goldman Sachs had on hand as of March 31, according to footnoted.com.

And finally, the one that puts both Wall Street pay and the penalty onto a human scale: Since the beginning of Goldman's 2007 fiscal year, Lloyd Blankfein and four other men (the company's other top-paid officers) have made more than $288 million among them -- or about 52% of the penalty amount. In other words, those five men could probably scrape together enough to pay the fine themselves.