Hell...Has Truly Frozen Over...

[WillyT]

Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs
By GREG SMITH - NYT
March 14, 2012

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. Goldman Sachs is one of the world’s largest and most important investment banks and it is too integral to global finance to continue to act this way. 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.

I knew it was time to leave when I realized I could no longer look students in the eye and tell them what a great place this was to work.

How did we get here? The firm changed the way it thought about leadership. Leadership used to be about ideas, setting an example and doing the right thing. Today, if you make enough money for the firm (and are not currently an ax murderer) you will be promoted into a position of influence. What are three quick ways to become a leader? a) Execute on the firm’s “axes,” which is Goldman-speak for persuading your clients to invest in the stocks or other products that we are trying to get rid of because they are not seen as having a lot of potential profit. b) “Hunt Elephants.” In English: get your clients — some of whom are sophisticated, and some of whom aren’t — to trade whatever will bring the biggest profit to Goldman. Call me old-fashioned, but I don’t like selling my clients a product that is wrong for them. c) Find yourself sitting in a seat where your job is to trade any illiquid, opaque product with a three-letter acronym.

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,” sometimes over internal e-mail. Even after the S.E.C., Fabulous Fab, Abacus, God’s work, Carl Levin, Vampire Squids? No humility? I mean, come on. Integrity? It is eroding. I don’t know of any illegal behavior, but will people push the envelope and pitch lucrative and complicated products to clients even if they are not the simplest investments or the ones most directly aligned with the client’s goals? Absolutely. Every day, in fact. It astounds me how little senior management gets a basic truth: If clients don’t trust you they will eventually stop doing business with you. It doesn’t matter how smart you are.

<snip>

Much More: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/14/opinion/why-i-am-leaving-goldman-sachs.html?_r=2&pagewanted=print

[Lil Missy]

1. I'm shocked, shocked I tell you!

[arcane1]

2. He worked there for 12 years and witnessed the change

12 years ago was 2000, and we all know what happened after that year. Shocking, I know!

[Turbineguy]

3. The slide started

when Blankfein took over.

[Vincardog]

4. Hello clients! Don’t trust Goldman Sachs they will rob you and leave your body in the street

[WillyT]

5. Yep... And Many Of Them Go Take An "Internship" At The White House

for a couple of years before they rejoin "The Masters of the Universe".

[Vincardog]

6. Yeah. Why is that no Banksters have gone to jail? Why no real Wall Street Regulations?

[WillyT]

7. BINGO !!!

[nanabugg]

12. I really do believe that if Obama is elected to a 2nd term, their will be bankster imprisonments.

They control too much to do it now...Obama would not stand a chance if his administration did this now. The RW knows that a 2nd term Obama will be quite different than his first term. That's why they incite so many to really hate him for reasons they don't even understand.

[WillyT]

13. Three Thoughts... 1) I See That Too... 2) What Cowards... 3) How Fucking Sad...

for our country, and all of us individually.

[Vincardog]

15. The Banksters control too much to do it now true. I hope and wish your belief is true.

I would love to believe it. I would love even more to see it. Unfortunately PBO has fooled me before.

[got root]

19. He will get a 2nd term, but don't count on any banksters going to jail

of course i hope i am very wrong (about the jail point, not the election)

[lonestarnot]

21. shhhhh. /^\ buzzards.

[magical thyme]

25. I'll believe it when I see it

I truly do hope to get to believe it. I suppose it depends in part on how strong the family ties to Geithner are. I'm not holding my breath waiting to find out, but I will be crossing my fingers and toes, praying and hoping for it.

[MisterP]

18. "the President's on the side of the middle class!"

[Taverner]

8. And so goes Capitalism....

By thy fruits so shall ye be known

[ProSense]

9. Goldman Sachs’ $1 Million Man: Mitt Romney’s Ties To A ‘Toxic And Destructive’ Bank

Goldman Sachs’ $1 Million Man: Mitt Romney’s Ties To A ‘Toxic And Destructive’ Bank

By Travis Waldron and Josh Israel

Republican presidential primary frontrunner Mitt Romney (R) is taking a break from the campaign trail a day after finishing third in the Alabama and Mississippi primaries, stopping in New York City for multiple fundraisers and a visit with campaign surrogate Donald Trump. Romney will attend three fundraisers and haul in an expected $2 million this week, bolstering a fundraising total that has already made him Wall Street’s favorite candidate.

More than any other institution on Wall Street, Romney has ties to Goldman Sachs, the firm that was slammed in a New York Times editorial this morning by a resigning executive director who decried the firm’s “toxic and destructive” culture. Romney and his wife, Ann, have investments in almost three-dozen Goldman Sachs funds valued between $17.7 million and $50.5 million, according to his personal financial disclosure forms.

- more -

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/03/14/444533/goldman-sachs-toxic-culture-romney/

[dixiegrrrrl]

11. Nice to know GS is probably screwing the Romney investments.

[Canuckistanian]

14. Rmoney is in THREE DOZEN Goldman funds?

Wow.

[lastlib]

16. Well, heck, I have three dozen funds....

...if you count every coin in my piggy bank as a fund.....

[got root]

20. CNN: Goldman Sachs was top Obama donor

Unfortunately, both parties are heavily influenced by our money changers.

http://articles.cnn.com/2010-04-20/politics/obama.goldman.donations_1_obama-campaign-presidential-campaign-federal-election-commission-figures?_s=PM OLITICS

[GopperStopper2680]

24. Sadly..

This kind of whistleblowing will probably not bring Goldman down. It'll be dismissed as the ramblings of a disgruntled employee with an axe to grind or pushed aside for the most part under coverage of gas prices, Obamacare and other issues more immediate to the taxpayer.

[WillyT]

10. Coming Up On TYT/Current Next...

[excuse not to write]

17. "Integrity? It is eroding."

Thanks for the news flash, bud!

[yurbud]

22. this is what will kill the corporatocracy: defections

[woo me with science]

23. I want to hug this man.

This is exactly what we need to happen, across the country.

We have to reclaim our humanity and tell the corporate value system to go to hell.