Wall Street's Double Secret Emergency Meeting

Posted by Bess Levin, Feb 12, 2009, 1:34pm

Picture 714.pngCharlie Gasparino reports that hours after Geithner's big moment on Tuesday, a top secret meeting entitled "The Goldman Sachs Roundtable" was held at 85 Broad. And if you're thinking this was a clubhouse meeting run by a couple of first years, how wrong you are. According to Chaz, this was not organized by some "low level schlubs," but Goldman's Milton Berlinski, and run by co-presidents Gary Cohn and Jon Winkelried. On the agenda? "Solving this problem because the government isn't going to."

The task-force apparently included "top 20 hedge fund and private equity executives," and while we've got nothing but love for Ken Griffin, I want to hear the Big Guy* was there or it doesn't count. While we wait on confirmation, a few more details. Griffin reportedly made some "fascinating comments," including the bold call to get at the root of the cause, the mortgages themselves; the prevailing sentiment was that while it's better to wait for a good plan, as opposed to "a quick and dirty bad one," time is of the essence; there's no confidence in Geithner; they want more Volcker; and the representative from Bain Capital made off like a bandit, stuffing free fruit and cookies in his purse, when he thought no one was watching.

*Try and tell me he's not the White Knight we've been waiting for. And he'd look great on horse, you know this much is true.

Update:

BN 12:49 *GOLDMAN SAYS CHIEF ECONOMIST ATTENDED, BLANKFEIN DIDN'T ATTEND

BN 12:49 *GOLDMAN SAYS MEETING NOT SECRET, NOT IN RESPONSE TO GEITHNER

BN 12:49 *GOLDMAN SAYS MEETING WAS SCHEDULED THREE WEEKS AGO

BN 12:49 *GOLDMAN SPOKESMAN VAN PRAAG RESPONDS TO CNBC REPORT

Update II: Gasparino takes issue with GS's assertion that the meeting was "public," on account of the fact that he wasn't invited.

9Recommend this! 91Comments

Comments

Comments hidden for your protection. Show them anyway!

Post Your Comment