Departing Goldman banker slams "rip-off" culture

[The Backlash Cometh]

LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs faced an unprecedented assault from one of its own on Wednesday after a banker published a withering resignation letter in the New York Times, calling the Wall Street titan a "toxic" place where managing directors referred to their own clients as "muppets."

It was the latest blow for the investment bank. The company -- dubbed a "great vampire squid" in a 2009 article in Rolling Stone magazine -- has been embroiled in the biggest-ever insider trading scandal on Wall Street. And just weeks ago, a top judge criticized Goldman for big conflicts of interest in an energy deal

In an opinion column in Wednesday's Times, Greg Smith, who worked in equity derivatives, said Goldman had become "as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it.

"It makes me ill how callously people talk about ripping their clients off. Over the last 12 months I have seen five different managing directors refer to their own clients as 'muppets,'" Smith said.


http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/sns-rt-us-goldman-smithbre82d0rv-20120314,0,4556529.story

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. That's one thing that often gets overlooked.

People who abuse the law in this way, have marginalized everyone else. I guess that's where the psychopath label comes in.