
Is Goldman Sachs Losing It?
Goldmans has had an impressive year after navigating successfully through the near collapse of the financial system. Having deftly extricated itself from a federal bailout, the bank is enjoying one of the richest periods in its 140-year history. But with all the criticism and the recent dip in GS share price (down 16% since October) is there a chink in the armour of the golden child of banking? The New York Times has interviewed Goldman Sachs alumni in an article …
Goldmans has had an impressive year after navigating successfully through the near collapse of the financial system. Having deftly extricated itself from a federal bailout, the bank is enjoying one of the richest periods in its 140-year history. But with all the criticism and the recent dip in GS share price (down 16% since October) is there a chink in the armour of the golden child of banking?
The New York Times has interviewed Goldman Sachs alumni in an article that questions whether the bank has “become, as one former partner put it, ‘just like every other bank on Wall Street’—that is, focused on short-term profits rather than long-term gains.”
The article focuses on Lloyd Blankfein and the perceptions, both inside and outside of Goldmans about his running of the bank’s operations: “Publicly, Mr. Blankfein espouses the Goldman Sachs way. But privately, current and former partners say that he has fundamentally changed the way Goldman views its customers and the broader marketplace. The changes began when Goldman went public in the late 1990s, but have accelerated under Mr. Blankfein, they say.” Part of the reason for this may be that thrusting traders, like Blankfein’s himself, rather than genteel bankers, are the ones that now dominate the court of Goldman.
Their edginess may be responsible for the firm’s huge profits, but it may also be why Goldman’s reputation has, in their eyes, suffered as of late: “Many Goldman employees are stunned by the public resentment directed at the bank in general and Mr. Blankfein in particular, who, after first steadfastly defending Goldman’s profits and pay, recently offered a vague apology for ‘mistakes’ that led to the financial crisis.”









