Owner's equity shall be itemized in the balance sheet under the titles such as the paid in investment (or in stock), paid in surplus, surplus from profit and undistributed profit.

And the brothers' investment may well have paid off: Americans for Prosperity, in concert with the family's other organizations, has been instrumental in disrupting the Obama Presidency.

It was the profits that Goldman Sachs announced in early 2009, and the huge bonuses it paid out, that helped earn the investment bank the nickname "vampire squid" and made Mr Blankfein a hate figure.