Tag Archives: Goldman Sachs

Finally, the Truth About the A.I.G. Bailout – NYTimes.com

29 Sep

Lincoln talked of government “for the people, of the people, and by the people.” He didn’t say anything about too-big-to-fail banks.

Starr contends that the government could have spent less money on A.I.G. — and therefore imposed less onerous terms on the company — had the bailout’s architects directed some of their tough love at the Goldmans and Deutsche Banks of the world. And Starr is hardly alone in making these claims. Ever since the details of the A.I.G. rescue entered the popular consciousness, everyone from members of Congress to financial commentators to Occupy Wall Street protesters and Tea Party activists have fulminated against the “backdoor bailout” of Goldman et al. By fully litigating the issue, the Starr trial may finally help heal this festering wound.

At the heart of the controversy is the fact that the government has never provided a plausible explanation for why the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which had enormous leverage over banks like Goldman thanks to its role as their regulator, didn’t lean on them to accept less than 100 cents on the dollar in their payouts from A.I.G.

via Finally, the Truth About the A.I.G. Bailout – NYTimes.com.

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Op-Ed Cost Goldman Sachs $2.15 Billion Yesterday – Business – The Atlantic Wire

15 Mar

Greg Smith’s unflattering glimpse into Goldman Sachs’ corrupt culture triggered a financial blow to the firm Wednesday, as the company lost $2.15 billion of its market value, making Smith’s 1,283-word op-ed worth a whopping $1.675 million per word.

Goldman Sachs, as Bloomberg reports, saw it shares drop 3.4 percent in trading Wednesday

But they’ll make it up in volume.

via Op-Ed Cost Goldman Sachs $2.15 Billion Yesterday – Business – The Atlantic Wire.

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Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs – NYTimes.com

14 Mar

Goldman Sachs is broken, and now takes a predatory view of its clients. Is current management just blowing it up to inflate the trust funds they’ll leave to their grandchildren in an environmental disaster?

For more than a decade I recruited and mentored candidates through our grueling interview process. I was selected as one of 10 people (out of a firm of more than 30,000) to appear on our recruiting video, which is played on every college campus we visit around the world. In 2006 I managed the summer intern program in sales and trading in New York for the 80 college students who made the cut, out of the thousands who applied.

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.

When the history books are written about Goldman Sachs, they may reflect that the current chief executive officer, Lloyd C. Blankfein, and the president, Gary D. Cohn, lost hold of the firm’s culture on their watch. I truly believe that this decline in the firm’s moral fiber represents the single most serious threat to its long-run survival.

via Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs – NYTimes.com.

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The People vs. Goldman Sachs

12 May

Here’s the kicker for Matt Taibbi’s article in Rolling Stone:

A Senate committee has laid out the evidence. Now the Justice Department should bring criminal charges

And here’s the first paragraph:

They weren’t murderers or anything; they had merely stolen more money than most people can rationally conceive of, from their own customers, in a few blinks of an eye. But then they went one step further. They came to Washington, took an oath before Congress, and lied about it.

Yep. What’re the chances that they’ll get more than a slap on the wrist, if that? The answer to that depends, in part, on how much We the People kick up a fuss. And even then, it’s iffy if anything more than a wet noodle will be used to slap those wrists with the gold handcuffs.

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