Intro: "Goldman Sachs employee Greg Smith excoriated the investment bank in a New York Times op-ed, resigning due to the banks 'toxic and destructive' culture, one in which the bank's trading profits took precedence over its customers' financial well-being. Goldman managers allegedly called customers 'muppets,' and traders routinely asked how much was being made ripping off one customer or another. Goldman has been quick to push back on Smith's claims, portraying him as just a disgruntled employee."
Goldman Sachs' headquarters in New York. Greg Smith wrote in an essay for the New York Times that the firm had lost its moral compass. (photo: Mark Lennihan/AP)
Goldman Sachs Launches Counterattack on Greg Smith
15 March 12
oday, Goldman Sachs employee Greg Smith excoriated the investment bank in a New York Times op-ed, resigning due to the banks "toxic and destructive" culture, one in which the bank's trading profits took precedence over its customers' financial well-being. Goldman managers allegedly called customers "muppets," and traders routinely asked how much was being made ripping off one customer or another.
Goldman has been quick to push back on Smith's claims, portraying him as just a disgruntled employee. Some employees told Fox Business' Charlie Gasparino that Smith doesn't know what he's talking about because he "never made more than $750,000 a year."
And of course, the financial press has begun reporting anonymous attacks on Smith, quoting "people familiar with the matter" saying that Smith was angry with the size of his bonus and his lack of promotion:
- The Wall Street Journal reported that "people familiar with the matter" said that Smith is just miffed that his bonus was small: "The circumstances of Mr. Smith's departure aren't entirely clear. When Goldman doled out annual bonuses earlier this year, Mr. Smith's small payment became a point of friction, according to people familiar with the matter."
Forbes' Nathan Vardi wrote that Smith is just "having a midlife crisis": "Smith is not the first person who wants to tell his former bosses to shove it. He is also not a whistleblower."
The financial prognosticators at CNBC decided to mock Smith, saying that he would go form a media firm with Rolling Stone writer and staunch Goldman critic Matt Taibbi and the characters from Sesame Street. CNBC also compared Smith to Tom Cruise's character in Jerry Maguire, airing the clip of that film when Cruise asks "who's coming with me?" repeatedly, with no one actually going with him. Fox Business, meanwhile, insinuated that Smith just left because he didn't get a promotion and was paid a small bonus. Watch a compilation:
Bloomberg's William Cohan, author of "Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World," said today that Smith is "now in the Witness Protection Program" due to his sure ostracism from Wall Street.
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"Money doesn't talk, it swears" Bob Dylan-I think he just wrote that this morning.
Mr. Smith's openness, at considerable risk to himself, is to be commended.
That very same attitude of Goldman Sachs' employees pretty much confirms Smith's claims, doesn't it?
We all know the facts about the business practices of GS and its ilk. The GS cult members live in a different moral universe from the rest of us. The only thing they will ever understand from us is jail time.
BUT I wonder which party any given reader believes?
Credibility for these corporate criminals is shrinking by the minute to the size that they can hopefully be "Drowned in a bathtub (of it's own greed)" to quote one of it's private monopolist advocates Grover Norquist on another subject -(government).
Thank You GoldmanSacks (and Mammon) for validating Greg Smiths charges.
I am surprised that these reporters genuinely feel so defensive. They are not at all the subject of this debate. The main point of Mr. Smith's statement is that financial institutions should focus on making the clients happy. It sounds like a very sensible and universal business goal. I am surprised with how such a humble vision made reporters so angry. They might be fed by GS' PR material but I thought at least they would present it more professionally.
The end is near for GS.
Wow! Imagine that! Did the poor guy just make (maybe) $700,000? How sad!
These guys sure are an arrogant lot making big money off hard working people who had to bail them out and now suffer with their 401 K plans!
Maybe "miserable swine" applies to Goldman Sachs??
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