Its rivals will disagree, but Goldman Sachs is different.

Goldman Sachs reported a 79 percent surge in third-quarter earnings, making it the only Wall Street firm so far to show a gain from the quarter a year ago.

How much different was illustrated by Bear Stearns' results. Bear Stearns said its third-quarter earnings tumbled 61 percent, as it was whipsawed by the blowup in subprime. Bear Stearns, more than any other firm on Wall Street, depends on bond trading to power its profits.

Bear Stearns' bond-trading revenue tumbled 88 percent. "Market conditions in both the mortgage and credit businesses were extremely challenging this quarter," the firm said in what may be the understatement of the year.

Goldman Sachs' gains came even as the firm had a loss of $1.48 billion on non-investment grade loans. "Significant losses on non-prime loans and securities were more than offset by gains on short mortgage positions," Goldman Sachs said.

Strong gains from M&A advising and from trading in fixed income, currencies, and commodities bolstered the bottom line. Goldman Sachs was also helped by a $900 million gain from the sale of its stake in Horizon Wind Energy.

Goldman earned $2.85 billion, or $6.13 a share, compared with $1.59 billion, or $3.26 a share, in the third quarter a year earlier. Net revenue, which is revenue minus interest costs, jumped 63 percent to $12.33 billion. Return on equity, a closely watched measure of profitability on Wall Street, climbed to 36.6 percent from 31.6 percent. The results exceeded analysts' estimates.

Lloyd Blankfein, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, said: "Given the difficult environment of the third quarter, many of our businesses were challenged. But overall, the quality of our franchise produced strong results as clients continue to look to us for advice and execution."

Today, Blankfein turns 53. He may have already got his birthday wish.