Goldman Stunned by Op-Ed Loses $2.2 Billion

[Julian Englis]

Source: Business Week

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) saw $2.15 billion of its market value wiped out after an employee assailed Chief Executive Officer Lloyd C. Blankfein’s management and the firm’s treatment of clients, sparking debate across Wall Street.

The shares dropped 3.4 percent in New York trading yesterday, the third-biggest decline in the 81-company Standard & Poor’s 500 Financials Index, after London-based Greg Smith made the accusations in a New York Times op-ed piece.

Smith, who also wrote that he was quitting after 12 years at the company, blamed Blankfein, 57, and President Gary D. Cohn, 51, for a “decline in the firm’s moral fiber.” They responded in a memo to current and former employees, saying that Smith’s assertions don’t reflect the firm’s values, culture or “how the vast majority of people at Goldman Sachs think about the firm and the work it does on behalf of our clients.”

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, 84, whose “Volcker rule” would limit banks like New York-based Goldman Sachs from making bets with their own money, called Smith’s article “a radical, strong” piece. “I’m afraid it’s a business that leads to a lot of conflicts of interest,” Volcker said at a conference in Washington sponsored by the Atlantic.

Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-03-14/goldman-stunned-by-op-ed-loses-2-dot-2-billion-for-shareholders

---

Proof that talk is not necessarily cheap. I imagine Mr. Smith has angered several people.

[BootinUp]

1. Too bad, eat shit and die Blankfein.

[dimbear]

2. Evidently the Muppets actually can't take Manhattan. n/t

[Arugula Latte]

32. Good one.

[freshwest]

3. That's amazing.

[Mopar151]

4. Could'nt happen to "nicer" people

The bad faith, double dealing, skimming and outright theft practiced by Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street "Players" should have resulted in serious jail time, and asset seizures & liquidation unprecedented in modern times.

Bernie Madoff was a pipsqueak by comparison.

[SammyWinstonJack]

12. Yes well, we have to 'look forward', donchya know?

Besides, the banksters didn't do anything illegal, right, Obama?

[OnyxCollie]

20. We shouldn't begrudge their wealth or success.

Or so I have been told.

[Arkana]

22. It's not their wealth that makes them bad people.

Their choices and their utter contempt towards those who do not have what they do are what makes them bad people. JFK and FDR were both privileged growing up but they managed to turn out decent.

[OnyxCollie]

26. Was Obama talking about JFK or FDR when he said that?

I don't think so.

Keep spinning; you need the practice.

[Arkana]

46. Demonizing rich people for being rich is not going to make us any friends, pal.

Attacking them for being amoral, soulless husks who hate poor people is better because it points toward intentions.

And where do you get the idea that I was "spinning"?

[Mopar151]

44. Gotta agree with you here.

I've met some who were born to wealth and priviledge, who were very good people, and others - even siblings - who turned out nasty. Lots of factors involved besides $$$$$ - like having someone in their lives who cared how they turned out.

[wordpix]

51. why not? They make it on the backs of just folks & the environment

Give a little back, Blankface

[tcaudilllg]

43. The poorer they get, the more likely they will be prosecuted.

[fasttense]

5. There is no honor among thieves. n/t

[99th_Monkey]

6. Just WOW!! This self-inflicted "justice" could hardly be any more poetic. K-F*cking-R

All together now ... Visualize this => The Invisible Hand(s) tightening around Goldman Sachs' own neck.

Hats off - BIG respect to Greg Smith, the ex-Goldman Sachs executive who authored this story.
Many blessings for hit courage and integrity. May The Force keep him and his family safe.

[marmar]

7. There aren't enough violins in all the world's orchestras.....

[irisblue]

8. thieves....

if an op ed hurts them....i'm imaging their fear at a perp walk ....

[nxylas]

9. Smith better stay away from small airplanes

That is all.

[midnight]

10. Goldman Sachs pays their attorney's 1,000 an hour....

"Think about this for a moment, because, well, it is utterly unthinkable in the annals of Goldmandom. Cosa Nostra be damned, an executive decides to go out as publicly and bitterly as possible, foregoing what was likely a substantial exit bonus that would have been predicated on his signing a nondisclosure agreement. To go up against perhaps the world’s most powerful and connected financial institution, whose PR apparatus is now helmed by the former right-hand to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. A bank that is repped by more $1,000-an-hour attorneys than last spotted in the sprawling campus of lawyer hell."http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/216043-obama-and-cameron-promise-to-work-together-on-cybersecurity

[davidthegnome]

11. Think I'm gonna cry...

from laughing so hard.

[lunatica]

13. Thanks, and welcome to DU

[madrchsod]

14. welcome to du

[lovemydog]

15. When I read Smith's piece

I thought 'if I had money with Goldman Sachs, I'd remove it'.

[PassingFair]

28. I figured he was a lower-level guy....

Didn't know it would make real waves.

[dixiegrrrrl]

29. Romney and spouse have a few accounts at GS...

bet they won't move it.
Maybe we should ask him to?????

[GeorgeGist]

16. Keep kicking ...

their Gold Mansacks.

[LiberalEsto]

17. Karmic payback

Mwa ha ha ha ha

[Brettongarcia]

18. The problem with the free market, the stock market: it is all psychology; "panic" and "depression"

Our allegedly free, capitalistic stock market is highly touted. But? Our system, especially the free stock market, is not as rational or as good, as people thought.

Especially, the core of our whole economy, is dominated not by Reason, but by fickle Psychology. It is literally at risk everyday, from the whims of uninformed, emotional buys and sellers.

That, I submit, is a fundamental problem with Capitalism, and with the Stock Market.

Especially when all our retirement money was handed over to the stock market, in 401 K's etc.? Then huge, gigantic amounts of dumb money were dumped on the market. Guaranteeing that our economy would be even more emotional, fickle, and "irrationally exhuberant." Until our "bubble" burst. While any lessons that might have been learned, are remembered for only a very short time. And then the market is back up and down, again.

[Snake Alchemist]

19. End all stock speculation. nt

[Brettongarcia]

41. HOw about ending ... protecting all large speculators and companies from loss? "Too large to fail"?

How about a REALLY free market?

[AngryAmish]

49. In what sense does Reason exist?

Actually Reason is just a nice explanation we give ourselves for doing what we want to do.

I would hate to live in a world where Reason decides how to allocate resources. Leaving aside the intractable knowledge problem, I don't want to live where my betters get to decide what I get to buy and where I get to live.

[Arkana]

21. I loved Blankfein's response:

"This is not how the majority of the company feels."

What he left out was: "Me personally? Oh, they're all fucking rubes for trusting us. Stupid poors."

[HughBeaumont]

33. Caption Lloyd Bankfiend:

"Siiiiiiiiiiiiigh . . . how much longer IS this puppet show going to go on? I have a Congressional whipping to attend."

[crazylikafox]

39. I think you mean... "how much longer IS this MUPPET show going to go on?"

[JNelson6563]

23. I bet they'd like to Wellstone this guy.

[sarcasmo]

24. This makes my day, Thanks.

[Pachamama]

25. Hopefully the first of many bad things to come at Goldman Sachs....Couldnt happen to more deserving

....evil a-holes who have raped this country* and its citizens more.....

*actually, many countries

[Uncle Joe]

27. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Julian Englis.

[Julian Englis]

34. You're welcome.

The sad thing is this probably will not lead to real reform. The loss is just a paper loss and will probably be gone soon enough as the economy keeps growing under Obama presidency. A new Glass-Steagall is needed.

[WheelWalker]

30. If I were he, I wouldn't sit with my back to the door.

[Beacool]

31. I'm enjoying this far too much.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

35. AWWWWW

What a shame.

[DonCoquixote]

36. And this is why

The powers that be want Chinese style speech regulations and a hogtied internet. If half of what they sweep under the rug comes out, they may explode like Vampires in sunlight.

[WestSeattle2]

37. Morally bankrupt is being too kind. Where there were no morals, there

can be no bankruptcy. Goldman Sachs is truly one of America's sleaziest enterprises, exceptionally sleazy in fact, by any reasonable person's definition. How anyone with any moral fiber could last 12 years in that den of thieves and grifters, is beyond me.

[woo me with science]

38. I want to hug Smith.

This is what needs to happen, en masse.

We are human beings. We need to reclaim that, over any corporate identification.

[abelenkpe]

40. Good!

We need more people on wall street to stand up and do the right thing like Mr. Smith. Goldman deserves to lose every cent of their ill gotten gains.

[DonCoquixote]

42. hehehehehe

This guy needs a LOT of time on Current TV.

[lostnote12]

45. Baxter/Enron?

.....I'd say this guy is either a plant and we should beware of another financial shoe to drop on our nation OR rat pellet shot to the head at another gated community traffic intersection....

[lovuian]

48. yep

Baxter was suicided

[lovuian]

47. The Corruption must not be tolerated

Smith is right

[sarcasmo]

50. Well done Mr. Smith

[wordpix]

52. “Who’s going to hire someone who would do that?” I would!

Yep, if I ever get money to invest, I'll be calling that whistleblower right away.