Goldman Gamble Strikes Home

It's bonus season on Wall Street, but not all bank employees are reeling it in. In Fort Mill, South Carolina, workers employed by Goldman Sachs' subprime-loan unit are struggling, laid off and desperately seeking work. The town's residents had hoped that the subprime-mortgage industry would revitalize the local economy, which had once relied on the disappearing textile industry. Seven hundred jobs arrived in the form of a Goldman subsidiary, but the implosion of the subprime-mortgage industry has left most out of work. Said one former employee, "There were several months where I said: 'I'm cleaning toilets. I used to run 120 people in sales. What have I done here?'"