Blogs and Stories
Goldman Execs Blame Anti-Semitism
Alessandro della Valle / AP Photo
Charlie Gasparino reports that senior executives inside Goldman are in a panic over its image, trying to hire a "brand manager"—and even blaming a prejudice against the firm's Jewish chiefs.
How worried are Goldman Sachs executives about their ability to manage the coming media tsunami when bonus season comes around?
Paranoia might not be too strong a word to describe the mind-set. People inside Goldman tell me that some senior executives say they believe the onslaught of negative stories detailing Goldman’s manifold ties to upper levels of government, charges that it somehow fraudulently profited from the subprime crisis, and now the press about the firm’s record earnings is so out of proportion to reality that the coverage contains an element of anti-Semitism—subtly playing off the racist myth of a conspiracy of Jewish bankers controlling the world for their own benefit. (Goldman was founded by a Jewish immigrant, and after years of being run by Gentiles Jon Corzine and Hank Paulson, is once again run by a Jew, Lloyd Blankfein.)
“Blankfein is scared to death about what might happen when the bonus numbers hit,” one executive says.
Blankfein, I am told, isn’t paranoid but really concerned about being placed in an untenable position for any CEO who needs to retain talent. If he doesn’t pay his people, many will simply jump ship to other firms—including private-equity firms—that will. If he does, he faces endless negative coverage about how Goldman is making its partners rich at the expense of taxpayers who bailed out the firm last year.
This quandary has resulted in some very serious discussions at Goldman to attempt to spin the bonus issue in the best possible (or least damaging) way. The Daily Beast has learned that Goldman is considering “a menu” of options: One possibility is to pay the vast majority of the bonus in stock. On Wall Street, executives receive a combination of stock and cash, with the cash portion comprising 65 percent of the total bonus. Goldman may just flip that around.
Another option, according to people close to the matter, is for Goldman to pay much smaller bonuses and just hand out larger salaries, meaning there won’t be a massive media event that occurs every year once all the bonuses, including Blankfein’s—which hit nearly $70 million for 2007, just months before Goldman’s bailout—are announced.
A third option, these people say, is for Goldman to forgo bonuses for the most part and just buy its stock in the open market. Because most of its executives have large pieces of their net worth tied up in shares of Goldman, the wealth effect would be bigger and less sensational than paying all those huge bonus packages at the end of the year.
Blankfein, of course, has a good reason to be worried. Brand and image is more important now than ever before, and the CEO’s internal research shows that Goldman is taking a beating like never before. Some of the criticism of Goldman is of course, absurd, like it committed securities fraud simply by shorting the housing market back in 2007.
Some of it isn’t: that the firm is now embracing the same type of risk that led to its near implosion back in 2008.
It almost doesn’t matter—it’s all starting to stick, and Goldman has suddenly replaced Citigroup, Merrill, and even Lehman as the leading culprit of Wall Street greed and abuse committed during the financial crisis. In the good old days, Goldman could just ignore the chattering class, make a lot of money, and tell the rest of the world to screw off.
No longer. The firm, like the rest of the former bastion of capitalism known as Wall Street, is protected by the federal government as a commercial bank. Goldman was bailed out with the rest of the financial system late last year, and while government bureaucrats don’t run Goldman like they run Citigroup, they are watching the firm like never before. And one thing government bureaucrats don’t like is bad publicity, even if it’s in fringe media publications.
That’s why Goldman has been looking for months for the right person to fill the job of “brand manager.” It’s the reason senior executives at the firm meet almost daily on how to repair the firm’s image. It’s the reason Blankfein “looks like shit,” according to one Wall Street CEO who considers himself a friend of the Goldman CEO and who says Blankfein has “become obsessed with the firm’s image problems.” And it’s the reason Goldman is weighing a menu of options that could soften what senior executives believe will be an onslaught of negative media attacks when the firm doles out bonuses to its best people at the end of the year.
“Blankfein is scared to death about what might happen when the bonus numbers hit,” one executive says.
Of course, there might not be any bonus money to hand out. The markets could implode over the next two months. The Fed could stop subsidizing Wall Street’s risk-taking and revoke Goldman’s charter as a commercial bank, meaning it is no longer Too Big to Fail and will have to pay more to finance trades and roll the dice in the bond markets. Goldman also could try to corner the market of drug stocks, betting President Obama’s health-care plan will fail, and guess what, the American people suddenly change their mind and embrace socialism and learn to love “the public option,” making Goldman’s trade an even worse bet than subprime debt back in 2007.
But barring any of this, Goldman will have a piggy bank of more than $11 billion to dole out in bonuses at year’s end, not exactly what most businesses would consider a problem, unless, of course, you’re Goldman and you’ve undergone the longest media-induced proctology exam in the firm’s long and storied history.
Spokesman Lucas Van Praag declined to discuss the specifics of the “menu” of options the bank is considering, but he said any stock-buyback program won’t be tied to bonuses.
What was interesting about Van Praag’s “denial” was that he won’t deny Goldman is weighing some large stock buyback. “I can’t comment on that,” he said before adding that analysts had been calling on the firm to do a stock buyback for some time.
One thing is certain: Goldman’s top executives might be getting much richer at the end of this year, but the firm’s reputation is sinking and may well sink further.
Consider this: Goldman produced record earnings in the second quarter, and if it just cranks out mediocre profits for the remaining two, Blankfein would be on course to receive a bonus of $50 million or more, according to people inside the firm.
This after Goldman was rescued from extinction (this is where I agree with the conspiracy theorists) nearly a year ago, when the financial crisis became most acute, with a $10 billion capital injection from the federal government, not to mention the tens of billions of dollars that flowed right to Goldman’s bottom line when the federal government bailed out AIG and honored all those insurance contracts Goldman held on its own portfolio of risky debt.
Of course, the flacks at Goldman would tell you that Goldman was among the first to repay its loan, and amazingly, they continue to spin that the firm wasn’t really bailed out when the Feds bailed out AIG. (Their rationale is too nonsensical to explain; trust me on this one, they’re full of shit.) Where they’re less full of shit on is the difficulties they face in dealing repairing the firm’s image.
The normally tight-lipped Van Praag put it this way: “We are obviously cognizant of the environment and the atmosphere that we’re operating in, but we also recognize that we have to pay our people to keep the firm competitive, which poses some issues for us.”
Van Praag also concedes that the recent attacks on the firm have hit home, particularly for Blankfein, after The New York Times reported that former Treasury Secretary (and former Goldman CEO) Hank Paulson spoke to Blankfein far more than any other CEO during the height of the financial crisis last year, suggesting that Goldman received preferential treatment. “Is Lloyd worried about our image? Nobody likes negative publicity. It’s unpleasant,” the spokesman says.
Charles Gasparino is CNBC's On-Air Editor and appears as a daily member of CNBC's ensemble. He is a columnist for The Daily Beast and a frequent contributor to the New York Post, Forbes, and other publications. His book about the financial crisis, The Sellout, is scheduled to be published later in 2009.
John Talks Joe
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
The Right Dumps Carrie
Jacob Bernstein is a senior reporter at The Daily Beast. Previously, he was a features writer at WWD and W Magazine. He has also written for New York magazine, Paper, and The Huffington Post.
Geithner's Stock Plummeting
Jeff Madrick is a contributor to the New York Review of Books and a former economics columnist for the New York Times. He is editor of Challenge Magazine, visiting professor of humanities at Cooper Union, and senior fellow at the New School's Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis. He is the author of Taking America, The End of Affluence (Random House) and The Case for Big Government.
The Best Job No One Wants
Charles Gasparino is CNBC's On-Air Editor and appears as a daily member of CNBC's ensemble. He is a columnist for the Daily Beast and a frequent contributor to the New York Post, Forbes, and other publications. His forthcoming book about the financial crisis, The Sellout, is scheduled to be published later in 2009.
Wall Street's Grinch Speaks
Charles Gasparino is CNBC's On-Air Editor and appears as a daily member of CNBC's ensemble. He is a columnist for the Daily Beast and a frequent contributor to the New York Post, Forbes, and other publications. His forthcoming book about the financial crisis, The Sellout, is scheduled to be published later in 2009.
Wall Street Will Walk
Charles Gasparino is CNBC's On-Air Editor and appears as a daily member of CNBC's ensemble. He is a columnist for the Daily Beast and a frequent contributor to the New York Post, Forbes, and other publications. His forthcoming book about the financial crisis, The Sellout, is scheduled to be published later in 2009.
Goldman's problems being blamed on anti-Semitism are about as valid as Michael Vick's problems being blamed on racism.
This is first and foremost about attempting to manage another crisis for Goldman- the public speculation of the possibly unsavory or illegal deals cut between Henry Paulson and Mr. Blankfein during last years financial crisis. Unlike previous crisises, this one could have criminal implications for all involved if there is merit to any of the allegations.
Perhaps all was legal and above board. Time and investigations will tell. In the meantime, I have a suggestion for Mr. Blankfein and other CEO's who are worried about what to do with their billions in bonuses. How about returning that money to the American people, from whom it was originally stolen?
Capitalism sucks. Big banks and Wall Street suck. I have thought so all my adult life, and recent events have confirmed all my worst suspicions of capitalism, banks and big business interests. They are corrupt, and they are ripping off the consumers and the common people, bribing politicians and political parties all the time.
That's just a fact. It's not just the Jews doing that, but ALL capitalists. It's time to take the country and the government back from Wall Street and the big corporations, by any means necessary.
Mr Van Pragg -
Anti-semitism? No. The stench here is your totally failed BS spin of the AIG bailout. Goldman execs testified before congress that your exposure was minimal when:
A. It was a firm-destroying $13B
B. Your current CEO spoke to guy engineering your bailout (AKA your prior CEO) more than the head of any other firm.
Face it: you got caught lying. Paulson's conflict of interest has been fully exposed. To play the victim now will backfire worse than your inept attempts at spin so far.
Read Larry Flint's post in the Huffington Post today. He says the same thing and has a few suggestions as to how to combat this fraud.
Co-sign!
Why, I swear it's hard to follow which shell has the pea underneath it.
First they have us worried about Pedro and his family sneaking across
our Southern border, stealing all our good jobs down at the slaughterhouse, and working our gardens.
Next they have us worried about Obama being a socialist.
Now they want us to worry about the Jews around the next corner, when...
All along, the looting of America continues by that fun-loving bunch over at Goldman Sachs.
I live in a state that's less than 5% Jewish. The fact that Goldman is a Jewish name never registered with me. But the naked, sociopathic greed of these assholes certainly did.
Note to Goldmanites: I don't have you because of your religion. I hate you because you are nothing but thugs and gangsters, within the law. I hate you because you paid to have the laws made to suit your own selfish greed.
Whatever this rotten company gets as a result of the public's hatred for it, they've got coming.
This user is no longer registered.
Gasparino?, give me an aspirino. What is with this flacid freak and his infatuation with Goldman Sucks? There is no Jews and Gentiles story here until this CMBC freak, the Gas_bag man makes it one,.... which he has now done.
I am sick of Obama letting all these thieves steal the loot while he turns his heand and starts a cowards debate on health care. And now the cowardly press will lay off Goldman because it is the kiss of death in America to criticize anybody who is JEWISH, ....... left them have billions, they suffered under Hitler.
i think he is looking for a job.maybe the next fed chair.once a wall street bum always a bum.
Goldman's problem does not stem from the fact that the firm is perceived to be a Jewish bank (it may or may not be). Goldman's problem stems from its less than transparent coziness with government. Henry Paulson had NO RIGHT to retain his interest in GS when appointed. He also should have steered clear of advocating for 100% reimbursment by AIG to GS. That would have at least given the process the gloss of transparency. Instead he (and Blankfein) had the chutzpah to do what they did they way they did.
Disclosure: I'm Jewish and believe that there is populist anti-semitism in some of the characterizations but I also believe they brought on themselves.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
The most obvious flaw in the anti-semitism argument: Is every single employee of Goldman Jewish??
If so, someone needs to call the EEOC on their asses!
Actually, Paulson sold his $500,000,000.00 (half a billion) of Goldman stock when he took the Treasury job -- tax free, thanks to a special law passed by the Congress. However, he was still totally a Wall St vampire when he sold the country down the tubes.
Criticize Obama's policies and risk being called "racist."
Criticize Goldman and risk being called "anti-semitic."
Why can't people with objective opinions be critical or have opposing views without being labeled racist or anti-semitic ?
Sounds like Race Baiting.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
Fed up with Goldman screwing its shareholders with excessive bonuses took profits to add to my Fanny Mae and Citigroup which are soaring because Uncle Sugar has a big piece of the action. Buy both now!!!
I agree. And Goldman's problems being blamed on anti-Semitism is about as valid as Bernie Madoff's problems being blamed on anti-Semitism. Let's call shit what it is and investigate the source of the stench.
Perhaps Goldman should pay the the citizens of the US a return on our investment in their firm with a public "thank you", what a novel idea! I think 50% of any bonus sounds about right to me.
GREED gone amok is ruining this country. I remember a few years back getting into a pissing contest with someone at the gym over executive compensation. This was when the former chaiman of Home Depot (after running the company into the ground) was able to leave with 60 million ! By no means was this new............this has been going on now for far too long. I was accused of being against capitalism. (By the way, I have been a financial advisor for 25 yrs) My response was not only was this a pedestrian statement, but why is it that 25/30 yrs ago the average differential in compensation between the "rank & file" and the top echelon was approx 40 to 1......................today it's anywhere from 300 to 600 to one ! Why is that?.................... Gee could it be that the board of directors is on the respective boards of the each other and their all scratching everyone's backs? What has happened is that these pay packages have grown exponentially without any noise from the public (until the banks need to be bailed out via the taxpayer) which has created the largest canyon between the top and "middle class". Despite this...........I am NOT for the government imposing limits on executive compensation. Rather, we should ask why is it that the comp structure 30 years ago was OK ( take sports as well) and now its not. America needs to wake up and realize that what's good for the few now is NOT good for our Country as a whole as this economic calamity amply displays. America has lost it's moral compass, it's much too everyone for him/herself. WAKE UP AMERICA !!!
This is absolutely ridiculous, Goldman has been at the Center of virtually every bubble burst which they caused to happen so they could suck every last dollar out of the situation making untold trillions of dollars in the process and we are supposed to feel sorry for them because they are being treated unfairly? $ 11 billion in bonuses after selling toxic sh..t worldwide and knowing the whole time they were basically stealing people's money, WTF should they care what people think, they are going to continue to lie, cheat and steal anyway they can.
You picked a good analogy.
Michael Vick's problems very much ARE based on racism
If he wasn't African American, he would NOT have done two years for what were basically misdemeanor animal cruelty charges that would have gotten a White man a fine and, maybe, 30 days in the county jail.
And Goldman Sachs is taking a lot of undeserved heat because it is a bank founded and run by Jewish businessmen.
For the better part of 150 years, antisemites have ranted and raved about "Jewish bankers" and how they prey on "honest Christian businessmen" - and this is the same old antisemetic blood libel.
Don't disagree about the Michael Vick issue -- you're right. But you're dead wrong about the "honest Christian businessmen" -- there may be a few of those, but damned few! The wide-spread hatred of Goldman Sucks has nothing to do with anti-Semitism -- although many Jewish people use that shibboleth to defend against almost any criticism and to shut down discussion of the issues -- it has to do with rapacious greed, (probably) criminal conspiracies and dishonesty in ripping off anyone they can and the easy ones twice as a matter of corporate policy.
Yes, anti-Semitism is a nice ploy indeed to deflect attention. Funny how they aren't bringing up anti-Harvardism. The three key players:
Blankfein: Harvard AB Winthrop House '75,
Bernanke: Harvard AB Winthrop House '75,
Paulson: Harvard MBA '70
are all Good Old Boys from Harvard.
Having done Russia ( http://www.thenation.com/doc/19980601/wedel ), the Harvard Boys are now doing America.
Too bad Fuld (who ran Lehman at the time) was a lowly NYU/Colorado alum. Can't be mixing that public school plebe dirt into your resume.
It must be nice to hide behind the words 'anti-semitism' when you stand accused by The People of earning Bernie Madoff size ponzi returns in High Frequency Trading Markets (a surefire marker for fraud), are caught 'spying' on 'flash' orders (only to then have the practice then canceled by the SEC), shorting markets on downticks, shorting markets again while naked, selling into markets you are already short in (program trading), while at the very same time you have won two consecutive Superbowls in getting your people elected Secy. of the Treasury.
Oh sorry, Secy. of Treasury is an UNELECTED POSITION, but it is one that people have frequently PAID FOR through History. The charges of Crony Capitalism not only stick, they burn when ignited. It's just a matter of time before the machine gun fire breaks out on Wall St. I, for one, am very happy to be away from the neighborhood these days.
But I never stole a penny from Government, from The People, from insider trading, or any of the sordid tactics used by GS and which have ruined markets for everyone and perhaps for All Time. Even Elliott Spitzer thinks Stock Investing is for 'suckers' given the crime that is allowed to go on there. Elliott should know having tried to prosecute these guys for many, many years.
And the correct word of the day is 'prosecute', not 'persecute. Unless you're trying to play victim while you're walking off with the Nation's wealth. Why do you constantly incriminate yourself?
I agree with magicman. The common man in this country is unprotected from the avarice that rules end eventually destroys our economy. The unfettered influence these firms have on our government, our economy and our daily lives is just plain scary. These "free market" "capitalists" are robber barons who will use any and all means to achieve their own financial success. Crony Capitalism is exactly what caused all of all of this. Trickle down my ASS!
Lloyd, take it private again. Problem solved.
Lloyd, take yourself and
Hank Paulson hunting with
Dick Cheney.
Problem solved!
That's 100% right. It seems to me that very few banks should be public - in order to avoid them becoming so big as to create systemic risk. After all, if banking is the element that in theory greases the wheels of capitalism, it becomes a problem when the grease becomes bigger than the wheel.
Being private wouldn't solve anything for the country...GS would still have an almost $1 Trillion balance sheet, which is what puts the country at risk. The only thing taking GS private would solve is the fact that GS would then not have to report a bonus number to the public, which (in my opinion) would be a relief!
I'm so tired of so many people who have no idea what they're talking about, or what GS even does for a living, rant about them making more money than you. GET OVER IT! THEY ARE LIKELY MUCH MUCH MUCH SMARTER THAN YOU!!! ...and much more greedy too!
Such a ridiculous populist agenda to limit peoples' pay! Go live in a socialist country if you don't like it! Yes, we should better regulate the business dealings. Yes, greater transparency is necessary. But stop being so bitter about people getting rich. Or, if you won't stop being bitter about capitalism working they way it is set up to work, then move!
I understand being anti-capitalist, and don't think an anti-capitalist stance is unreasonable. But you should admit THAT is your beef because THAT is what your arguments really boils down to. You ALL have benefited greatly from capitalism (whether you're in foreclosure or not), and you need to move if people getting rich while you don't is going to piss you off. THAT is how capitalism works...and anti-semitism for becoming unpopular b/c you are getting rich doesn't have anything to do with it -- anti-capitalism does!
My advice if you do want to remain a capitalist and don't want to go through life being bitter: go to school and learn how to become a capitalist...and get paid!
scalingwalls (see below) - You're a profoundly disturbed and deluded individual. GS' conduct is the furthest thing from CAPITALISM. Taking money from the government to avoid bankruptcy is hardly CAPITALISTIC. A system that helps failed banks recover is not a CAPITALIST system. Having been an investment banker (with a very white shoe firm) and having advised on financial institution transactions I'm more than well qualified to comment on what GS does for a living!
The only thing they are smarter at is gaming the (deeply flawed non capitalist) system! I The rant is not one that can be characterized as anti-capitalist, but one against firms seeking and getting favor from institutions entrusted with taxpayer money! In a capitalist America GS would have been penalized for miscalculating the risks involved in insuring their bets with AIG (isn't that what they are supposedly so much better at - figuring out these risks?) - would not have received TARP money, or had their liquidity problems backstopped by access to the Federal Reserve's discount window. They would have had to sell assets to raise any cash they needed and the person with that cash would have gotten a great deal on those assets. That is CAPITALISM - the foresight to have the money (and deploy it correctly) when needed. Not the ability to go to Uncle Sam when they realized AIG can't pay on their obligations.
I am anti-capitalist. Jews have nothing to do with it one way or the other as far as I'm concerned. I don't like Wall Street and teh big capitalists at all, and don't want them to control teh economy like they have for decades. I also think the government has been very generous with the capitalists and not very much with the common people.
I'll go even further. I think we need a public option in banking, finance, investment and mortgages, to liberate us from the total control of corrupt private banking interests, which do not have the public interest at heart.
I don't know how to make it plainer than that. If people still have any use for these big capitalists after all that has happened, they are purely and simply fools. Many Republicans are fools, still trying to peddle the same free market shit that they've been selling for decades.
if you are anti-capitalist, what are you?
i think he was saying he doesn't like unleashed rampant capitalism. granting wisdom and beneficence to some "invisible hand' is just an excuse for unmitigated greed as we've seen with GS and other Wall Street banks. we need only look back as recently as the 19th century to see how unregulated capitalism can indenture millions of people while concentrating wealth in the hands of a few. Ethical Capitalism Fair Government Regulation = prosperity and safety for a civilized society.
actually, he says he is "anti-capitalist". that doesn't mean he's sort of capitalist or for some type of capitalism. I again ask what he is? Socialist? Communist? Fascist? Mercantilst? What?
These people are NOT capitalists. If they were than the banks would have been allowed to fail. They actually behave like National Socialists - private gain - public losses...
Exactly correct, artois. Bush/Obama gave billions to banks, no strings attached. That is neither socialism nor capitalism. If we pay Goldman's, AIG et. al. not to destroy the economy, that is called extortion.
And if they crash again, no more bailouts for these SOBs. Nationalize them outright or let them go under.
You can't Nationalize companies that are basically people. They don't make anything except money. The assets of the company go home every night. Nationalize Goldman and the employees will just quit and start Soldman Gachs down the block. All their clients will follow them there and you will have a bunch of nationalized desks, chair and computers.
"If he doesn't pay his people, many will simply jump ship to other firms..." over and over we've heard this refrain. Facile camouflage for continuation of their ongoing and duplicitous avarice. That's it plain and simple. It may be the norm for people in this line of work to be given these obscene sums by their morally flaccid handlers, by they never earn it. Nobody could.
Yes, Goldman is full of shit. And full of criminals. They do two things: game the system and fleece the public. Cuomo will find a smoking gun. In bringing criminal charges against the rocket scientist type who purportedly tried to steal the rougue algo, Goldman's given the game away. This is the firm that gave us Paulson and Rubin, etc. may they rot in hell. George Patton
greed is greed, as if jews had some kind of monopoly on being greedy. The monetary system is just a way for a small minority to oppress the masses and humanity needs to just overthrow this pathetic concept and find a way to assign real value to the worth of individual humans. Money has outlived its usefulness on a planet approaching seven billion human beings.
what...you want to go back to bartering
Its not bad enough that they're a failure at business and so fleece the taxpayer to make up the difference.
Or that they then fecklessly show no sign of contrition by reverting from their psychopathic money-lust.
Or that they orient their business more and more to esoteric rip-offs that serve no community good.
Or that they subvert good governance for all with their "inside men" steering public policy.
Now they lash out with a backhander across the face of people they deem impudent servants with a racist slur.
There's a nasty plot to blame matters on a racial group alright... by Goldman Sachs on the 96% of people not a member of their exceptionalism-obsessed tribe.
@hidflect- Blankfein should be re-circimcised by an Islamic Mullah for trying to implicate all Jews in his crimes!
There is no "tribe" except the clan of the dollar. The dollar is all these people respect and love. God is not in the picture.
What this country needs is a revolution, a serious, society altering revolution. Maybe a mass lynchings on Wall Street; home burnings in the Hamptons and Connecticutt. Bankers in Charlotte hanging from lampposts. Seriously.
And to think I spent the 80s and 90s voting for Republicans of all things. God was I a fool.
The revolution does not have to be violent, although that is how it has went down throughout most of human history. This time the revolution can just be a collective societal recognition that wealth is meaningless. Those with financial power only have power because of the collective belief in the monetary system. Why do any of us have to believe that anybody else is superior because they have more green pieces of paper? With the advent of electronic payments and transfers the concept of money is becoming even more abstract and almost silly. Why is anybody worth more than anybody else? The next great human revolution will be a revolution of the mind.
Good luck putting food on your table.
I think leftygoleft is primed and ready to be chipped. The Brave New World needs more willing slaves like you - now roll up your sleeve for your RFID implant, lefty.
It didn't help Mr. Blankfein's image concerns when his wife was out of control exerting her very special privileged status at a Hampton's charity event (Super Saturday). Her sense of I'm way better then everyone else is a sure sign that Goldman needs to tend to its image - and that of its senior managers.
Truth be told, as a former very senior Wall Street exec, you can find the directing hand of Goldman behind most Wall Street actions - they are always in the thick of it, exploiting every angle. And since that it the essence of Wall Street - you do go there to make money not do charity work - they just happen to be better at it then everyone else. The rule book as written allows them to do this - if you don't like it change the rule book.
More to the point is that GS is a public corporation and it is the shareholders who should be up in arms about the bonus payments and the behavior of its executives (and their wives). If they disapprove of the dollars flowing to employees rather then to themselves (as dividends) then they should do something about it - and there are many options.
Lastly, to those that criticize capitalism you are missing the mark. John Maynard Keynes wrote eloquently about countervailing forces in economic theory. That theory says that labor balances management, government balances finance, etc. The bottom line is that there is nothing wrong with capitalism when it is balanced by strong government controls. The Bush administration (and Clinton before) so weakened the regulatory agencies that they have left Big Finance uncontrolled - that is the problem.
bigmacha, your post has merit, but when one considers that the largest blocks of stock are held by a) Corporate officers & b) faceless Mutual funds,
from which of these quadrants is the shareholder outrage to emerge?
Goldman's best option from a PR perspective would be to have all those who are receiving bonuses voluntarily donate 10 percent of the take to a nonprofit foundation, the Goldman Sachs American Recovery Fund, which would then provide scholarships, small business startup grants, and grants to health clinics, food pantries, neighborhood sustainability projects, child development programs, day cares, after-school programs, etc. Goldman need to stop sitting there on a pile of cash, pissing and moaning about their horrific good fortune, and DO something for somebody.
Oh yeah, they could also pay me for my great PR idea since I'm self-employed and living at the poverty level.
Crying anti-semitism inorder to enrich yourself with impunity is disgusting. I find this victimization to be disrespectful to the families, like mine, which suffered from real anti-semitism, not this cry baby, "Oh, the goyim doesn't like it when I enrich myself at their expense", and "Oh, the goyim doesn't like it when I buy off the government and try to block them from regulating my shady activities," nonsense.
I'm still waiting for Charlie Gasparino to report an actual story. His pieces are like those bad "filler" songs that bands used to write because they were contractually obliged to deliver a full album despite the fact that they could only produce a single hit. In Charlie's case it's an entire album of fillers with no hits. Odds are that I can get a better business story chatting up the stranger I sit next to on my MBTA commute this afternoon. Yawn. Give me a break. Yet another non-story.
amen
You and Wheels14 work for GS, do you?
>Another option, according to people close to the matter, is for Goldman to pay much smaller bonuses and just hand out larger salaries, meaning there won't be a massive media event that occurs every year once all the bonuses, including Blankfein's-which hit nearly $70 million for 2007, just months before Goldman's bailout-are announced<
So crazy it could just work. Seriously. I'm sure that in the old days there was a certain prestige to be able to say that you had worked so well for the company that they gave you a multi-million dollar bonus, but it also caused people to take incredible risks to make good. Paying higher salaries up front would attract and retain the talented people. Hopefully these people would be able to concentrate on making money for their clients, not just for themselves.
And if it makes you feel any better Lloyd, we don't hate you because you are Jewish. We hate you because even if you could cure cancer, bring peace to the Middle East, AND develop a totally pollution-free source of cheap energy, you still ain't worth $70 million dollars.
People who attribute all opposition to this agenda as anti Semitism are morally unctuous, self-deluded, and passive aggressive.
Matt Taibbi was spot on !
Inside The Great American Bubble Machine
Matt Taibbi on how Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/28816321/the_great_american_b ubble_machine
May I suggest to get a hold of LIFE INC by Douglas Rushkoff, chapter 1 is available for free on his web site. http://rushkoff.com/books/life-incorporated/life-inc-chapter-one/
It is a mighty fine executive resume & historical overview of the absolute abuse still in progress...
A hint : Our whole culture is organized around wealthy people who keep poor people poor, uneducated, and powerless.
Washington has become Versailles. We are ruled, entertained and informed by courtiers. The popular media are courtiers. The Democrats, like the Republicans, are courtiers. Our pundits and experts are courtiers. We are captivated by the hollow stagecraft of political theater as we are ruthlessly stripped of power. It is smoke and mirrors, tricks and con games. We are being had. - Chris Hedges
You say yer life's a bum deal
'N yer up against the wall...
Well, people, you ain't even got no
Deal at all
'Cause what they do
In Washington
They just takes care
of NUMBER ONE
An' NUMBER ONE ain't YOU
You ain't even NUMBER TWO
- Frank Zappa 'The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing'
Co-sign!
Great post and spot on
Great posts! Torches and pitchforks! Goldman = vampire squid on the face of humanity.
LOL Everyone is always a victim and it's always someone else's fault isn't it?
That's such a great and cheap way to stop any debate and get cover. They broke it, they own it. Public discomfort is with the Firm's hubris (chutzpa). And speaking of which: the allusions to Mr. Blankfein's wife's behavior and his residence in the "most expensive" co-op in NYC don't really help either.
It's not class envy, Americans like to see hard work and innovation rewarded. But getting rich pushing paper on taxpayer's dime is not cool.
We have not heard about GS calibrating their moral/ethical compass, yet.Next thing up: they will invoke the holocaust
Not only do the GS fraudsters get rich pushing paper on the taxpayers' dime; the paper they push is all hot air, fictional, relates to NOTHING, imaginary! It's not as if the "paper" has relevance to anything real -- and, horrors -- marginally beneficial to anyone but the pushers. If someone happens to torch any of the paper, the GS boys go running to their "embeds" at Treasury or the Fed to get their asses covered. Their evil reputation is well-earned and well-deserved, and has nothing to do with the ethnicity of either their founders or their current employees. Along side pitchforks and torches, it's time for some serious stringent regulation (drainage) of the whole swamp called the "financial sector."
I heard from a semi-reliable source (though likely trying to spread some kind of positive spin on Goldman) that Goldman didn't want the rescue money and they were strong armed into taking it so that all the banks/brokerages would look equally like they needed a bailout, and that's why they paid it back so fast, because they didn't want to be put in the eye of public scrutiny (so they could get their bonuses back as fast as possible I presume). I'm wondering what truth there is to this story as I haven't read anything from this pov.
Blankfein: we don't hate you for any anti-Semitic garbage. We hate you because you make all of our lives worse off. We hate you because you're a bunch of crooks. We hate you because you took a bail-out from the government when your own risk-taking got you in trouble. We hate you because you took OUR money, and THEN you had the gall to say you had paid that money back when you only did so through the laundered money you received through AIG.
You paid our money back with our money! GIVE IT BACK.
And where is all that 'talent' going to jump to if Goldman doesn't pay those bonuses? Citibank?, BofA?,UBS? Let them jump - into the cesspool. They've ruined the country, they've lost trillions of dollars of other people's money. They are the scum of the earth. And to hide behind 'anti-semitism' is disgusting. It's being used to stifle criticism, and should be recongized as such.
This user is no longer registered.
As far as I know, blood-sucking doesn't have a religion. Ask Dracula.
This user is no longer registered.
Yes, he changed is name to Drake when he immigrated to America.
They're worried about greedy employees who expected to be rewarded with bonuses for FAILING at their jobs (contract or no contract) jumping ship and going to competitors? What complete BS. I can only imagine the number of recent unemployed graduates who would walk across hot coals to take their place for FAR less money that G.S. is currently paying their employees.
Thank you.
As a first time user, your comment has been submitted for review. It can take anywhere from a few hours to a day or two for your comment to be reviewed, depending on the time of week and the volume of comments we receive.
Please log in to leave comments.