GOLD may climb the most in more than three decades this year as investors and central banks boost their holdings on concern that global economic growth may stall amid a worsening sovereign-debt crisis in the US and Europe.

US stocks fell, following the biggest three-day rally since 2009, as German and French leaders proposed a financial-transaction tax and rejected selling euro bonds to halt a debt crisis threatening economic growth.

Lloyd Blankfein, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs Group, saw his 2010 compensation rise to $14.1m (€9.9m) from just over $1m (€700,000) in 2009, according to an analysis of data filed with regulators.

SEVEN of the world’s top hedge fund managers earned 10-figure pay cheques and one set a record for the highest-ever pay-out last year due to a stock market rally that pushed returns to their highest levels in a decade.

The man taking multi-million euro bets against UK banks is believed to have earned the largest one-year payday in Wall Street history.