Another Man of the Year, God of Goldman Sachs, God of America………
“Master of risk who did God’s work for Goldman Sachs but won it little love. A good slice of its success is attributable to Mr Blankfein, a tough, bright, funny (everyone remarks upon his unpretentious, wisecracking manner) financier who reoriented Goldman. Under his leadership, trading and risk-taking have pushed to the fore, reducing the influence of its investment banking advisers. In 2009, however, Wall Street faced a wave of public anger at how banks that survived only with the assistance of taxpayers seemed unchanged and unrepentant. Goldman’s profitability, and suspicions that its deep links with governments around the world give it unfair advantages, made it a symbol of Wall Street greed and excess. It was described by the Rolling Stone writer Matt Taibbi as “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity”. Mr Blankfein has struggled to rebut the criticism effectively, shifting from insisting that it would probably have survived the crisis without help from the US Treasury, to apologising for its conduct, and finally (in a typically jaunty line at the end of an interview with the Sunday Times) asserting that it was “doing God’s work”.Yet he has also steered Goldman adeptly through the crisis, betting correctly that the global investment banks would survive the turmoil (with government help) and not be dismantled by regulators. …………For all of these reasons, both positive and negative, the Financial Times has chosen Lloyd Blankfein as its Person of the Year………”
Clearly, Goldman’s senior staff have 23 billion good reasons to get spiritual, firmly believing with Blankfein that they have done “God’s work”. But they must have a different God than everybody else.
Cheers and Happy Holidays
mhg
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