Goldman Sachs Has A Message For The World

Author:
Bess Levin
Updated:
Jan 14, 2019
Original:
Apr 1, 2010

But it's after 5 the night before a 3-day and if I can speak freely? I need to get out of here and can't wade through this story just now. Also, while I'm sure there's many a gem to be found within, based on an intimate knowledge of the firm, plus the article's dek ("When it comes to its role in the financial crisis, Goldman Sachs has a message for the world"), there's no need. If I know my Masters of the Universe-- and I think I do!-- the message is this: "blow us." Or variants thereof. Prove me wrong.

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A week ago today, a man named Greg Smith resigned from Goldman Sachs. As a sort of exit interview, Smith explained his reasons for departing the firm in a New York Times Op-Ed entitled "Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs." The equity derivatives VP wrote that Goldman had "veered so far from the place I joined right out of college that I can no longer in good conscience say I identify with what it stands for." Smith went on to note that whereas the Goldman of today is "just about making money," the Goldman he knew as a young pup "revolved around teamwork, integrity, a spirit of humility, and always doing right by our clients." It was a culture that made him "love working for the firm" and its absence had stripped him of "pride and belief" he once held in the place. While claiming that Goldman Sachs has become virtually unrecognizable from the institution founded by Marcus (Goldman) and Samuel (Sachs), which put clients ahead of its own interests, is hardly a new argument, there was something about Smith's words that gave readers a moment's pause. He was so deeply distraught over the differences between the Goldman of 2012 and the Goldman of 2000 (when he was hired) that suggested...more. That he'd seen things. Things that had made an imprint on his soul. Things that he couldn't forget. Things that he held up in his heart for how Goldman should be and things that made it all the more difficult to ignore when it failed to live up to that ideal. Things like this:

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