The Goldman Bomb: Will Blankfein Survive?

[xchrom]

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/johncassidy/2012/03/the-goldman-bomb-will-blankfein-survive-the-fallout.html



From one perspective, Greg Smith’s scalding Op-Ed in today’s Times, in which he accuses his now former colleagues at Goldman Sachs of gleefully “ripping off” clients—known as “muppets” to some at the firm, he says—contains little that is new.

For years, virtually everybody on Wall Street and beyond has known that the white-shoe partnership turned global financial behemoth is hopelessly conflicted. That was what the S.E.C.’s 2010 lawsuit against the firm was all about. The government accused Goldman of conspiring with one client (John Paulson’s hedge fund) to rip off others (a variety of banks), while enriching itself in the process. When the S.E.C. settled the case for just $285 million, I though it was an outrage, and when, in November of last year, Judge Jed S. Rakoff, of the U.S. District Court, blocked the settlement, I applauded his move.

What is new, of course, is that the accusations against Goldman are now coming from within. In more than twenty-five years of following and writing about the firm, I have watched it go through innumerable scandals—from its part in the Robert Maxwell affair to its role as an adviser to the Greek government—and never in all that time have I seen anybody from the firm break ranks like this:

'To put the problem in the simplest terms, the interests of the client continue to be sidelined in the way the firm operates and thinks about making money…. The firm has veered so far from the place I joined right out of college that I can no longer in good conscience say that I identify with what it stands for.'


Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/johncassidy/2012/03/the-goldman-bomb-will-blankfein-survive-the-fallout.html#ixzz1pCNNpiHO

[russspeakeasy]

1. Mr. Smith filled his pockets and bank accounts before he wrote this

"attack"... Gee, what a brave man.

[larkrake]

2. smart man, he knows he wont get another corp job

[denverbill]

3. He's a helluva lot 'braver' than all the douchebags that are still there.

He could've kept his mouth shut and made tens or hundreds of millions of dollar more. Not many people would walk away from that, especially when he isn't likely to ever get a similar job after speaking out.