Meet Government Sachs

[MinM]

Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs
By GREG SMITH
Published: March 14, 2012

TODAY is my last day at Goldman Sachs. After almost 12 years at the firm — first as a summer intern while at Stanford, then in New York for 10 years, and now in London — I believe I have worked here long enough to understand the trajectory of its culture, its people and its identity. And I can honestly say that the environment now is as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it.

To put the problem in the simplest terms, the interests of the client continue to be sidelined in the way the firm operates and thinks about making money. Goldman Sachs is one of the world’s largest and most important investment banks and it is too integral to global finance to continue to act this way. The firm has veered so far from the place I joined right out of college that I can no longer in good conscience say that I identify with what it stands for...

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...

It makes me ill how callously people talk about ripping their clients off. Over the last 12 months I have seen five different managing directors refer to their own clients as “muppets,” sometimes over internal e-mail. Even after the S.E.C., Fabulous Fab, Abacus, God’s work, Carl Levin, Vampire Squids? No humility? I mean, come on. Integrity? It is eroding. I don’t know of any illegal behavior, but will people push the envelope and pitch lucrative and complicated products to clients even if they are not the simplest investments or the ones most directly aligned with the client’s goals? Absolutely. Every day, in fact.

It astounds me how little senior management gets a basic truth: If clients don’t trust you they will eventually stop doing business with you. It doesn’t matter how smart you are...

Greg Smith is resigning today as a Goldman Sachs executive director and head of the firm’s United States equity derivatives business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/14/opini ... ml?_r=2&hp

rigorousintuition.ca - Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con

rigorousintuition.ca :: The Great American Bubble Machine

[MinM]

Charles Lindbergh Sr., 86% of Great Depression economists on monetary reform
Posted on March 14, 2012 by Carl Herman

Charles Lindbergh Sr. (1859-1924) was a member of the House of Representatives from 1907-1917 (R-MN). Lindbergh became disgusted with the leadership of both Republicans and Democrats, and ran as an unsuccessful third-party candidate for the Senate, Congress, and Governor from 1916 until his death. Lindbergh was among the leading spokespersons against the Federal Reserve and against US involvement in World War 1. He was the father of famous aviator, Charles Lindbergh, Junior...

…Early in my service here I observed that there was some power outside the Government itself which was insidiously, but none the less effectively dictating the course of legislation in reference to finance, currency and the creation and control of credit throughout the country; that it was in a position to dictate and did dictate to an extent almost unlimited, to whom credit should be extended and from whom it should be withheld, and that it largely controlled the political action and influence of most of the banking and other corporations of the country. I saw that such a power of control existed here in Congress...

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/03/ ... eform.html

Hauptmann Murdered by Lindbergh

[2012 Countdown]

Another spot, and another excerpt:

What are three quick ways to become a leader? a) Execute on the firm’s “axes,” which is Goldman-speak for persuading your clients to invest in the stocks or other products that we are trying to get rid of because they are not seen as having a lot of potential profit. b) “Hunt Elephants.” In English: get your clients — some of whom are sophisticated, and some of whom aren’t — to trade whatever will bring the biggest profit to Goldman. Call me old-fashioned, but I don’t like selling my clients a product that is wrong for them. c) Find yourself sitting in a seat where your job is to trade any illiquid, opaque product with a three-letter acronym.

Today, many of these leaders display a Goldman Sachs culture quotient of exactly zero percent. I attend derivatives sales meetings where not one single minute is spent asking questions about how we can help clients. It’s purely about how we can make the most possible money off of them. If you were an alien from Mars and sat in on one of these meetings, you would believe that a client’s success or progress was not part of the thought process at all.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/ex-goldma ... ts-clients



===

Goldman Responds To Greg Smith, Darth Vader Is Leaving The Empire, And More...
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/14/2012

Because every former employee confession has an equal and opposite reaction from "toxic and destructive" firms. And what a better way to test the PR disaster damage control skills of the firm's new global head of corporate communications: former Treasury aide and Geithner lackey Jake Siewert. In other news, Goldman is now promptly adding perpetual non-disparagement clauses to all employee contracts. Retroactively, if possible.

From Bloomberg:

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) said it disagreed with comments made by Greg Smith, a departing employee who attacked the firm’s “toxic and destructive” culture in an opinion piece in today’s New York Times.



“In our view, we will only be successful if our clients are successful,” the New York-based firm said in a statement today. “This fundamental truth lies at the heart of how we conduct ourselves.”

Elsewhere, Emperor Palpatine is also caught in a PR debacle.

Why I am leaving the Empire, by Darth Vader

TODAY is my last day at the Empire.

--
full-
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/goldman-r ... greg-smith

[JackRiddler]

It is unclear how much swag Mr. Smith takes with him on his way off a ship we can only fervently hope is sinking. His letter contains a number of dubious, if not laughable claims: First, that history will record how Goldman Sachs culture eroded under Lloyd Blankfein, as if the company was a beacon of goodness under past directors like those primary architects of Wall Street fraud and political corruption, Henry Paulson and Robert Rubin.

Second, Mr. Smith says that he knew "of no illegal behavior" while directing "equity derivatives business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa" on behalf of Wall Street's most profitable criminal organization. While that may depend on what his actual position was, this seems especially doubtful given Goldman's activity to inflate food and oil prices through futures speculation, or the scams pulled with Greek debt. Of course, one thing can be said of Goldman: they always lobby lawmakers to make sure their future crimes are legal in advance. For now, we can give Mr. Smith a pass; perhaps he is not simply covering his ass, but saving the more actionable evidence for a grand jury.

Third, Mr. Smith characterizes Goldman as one of the "most important investment banks," "too integral to global finance to continue to act this way," when of course nothing could be better for the globe than the demise of this financial crime family and an end to its "vampire squid" activity dragging down the world. To his great credit, Mr. Smith's letter cites that phrase and links to excellent articles by the reporter who coined it, Matt Taibbi, who has exposed Goldman's crimes crimes at length in the pages of Rolling Stone.

With a bit of luck, this is a signal that key people at Goldman Sachs are looking for an exit. May we soon see all of the executives go out the door, some with even more revealing letters of resignation, the rest in handcuffs and on their way to federal prison.

[eyeno]

It astounds me how little senior management gets a basic truth: If clients don’t trust you they will eventually stop doing business with you. It doesn’t matter how smart you are...

Greg Smith is resigning today as a Goldman Sachs executive director and head of the firm’s United States equity derivatives business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Well Greg old buddy lets do short hand on this. When Winter comes the bones get picked. The only thing left is the meanest Vulture in the valley and the bones that are are absolutely vital to its existence. The rest of the bones get thrown in the hole with the treasure. Did I say bones?





And it doesn't matter if Goldman Sachs (the name) goes belly up or not. If the 'name' goes bankrupt its owners simply sail away with all the treasure assets they swapped for paper fiat. All is well that ends well and this will end well for the ship owners no matter what. The crew will have to walk the plank but most with huge life preservers, but the ship owners will be laughing no matter what...

Christen a new ship with a new name and off they go on a new maiden voyage into history...again.

[bks]

Greg Smith wrote:
TODAY is my last day at Goldman Sachs. After almost 12 years at the firm — first as a summer intern while at Stanford, then in New York for 10 years, and now in London — I believe I have worked here long enough to understand the trajectory of its culture, its people and its identity. And I can honestly say that the environment now is as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it.

To put the problem in the simplest terms, the interests of the client continue to be sidelined in the way the firm operates and thinks about making money. Goldman Sachs is one of the world’s largest and most important investment banks and it is too integral to global finance to continue to act this way. The firm has veered so far from the place I joined right out of college that I can no longer in good conscience say that I identify with what it stands for...

Yes, it morphed from the Good Ship Lollypop into the Death Star! The culture was fine, mind you, while Smith believed he and his buddies were extracting every dollar they could on behalf their clients, no matter the social costs.

I remember reading Camus' La Chute for a philosophy class many years ago, and really getting drawn into it midway through. I raised my hand and said to the professor, "The book's tone really changed about page 40, didn't it?"

He replied, "No, the book's tone is identical throughout. That's what people say the moment they begin to see themselves in it."

[JackRiddler]

Goldman Sachs are ahead of eyeno in one way. They'd never blindly denigrate "fiat money," they'd simply seek to hold more of it when asset prices are high and use it to buy assets when they are low.

Kondratieff wave = post-hoc fallacy, plus a bit of statistical self-pleasuring.

More goldbug religion.

And yeah, yeah, the dark lords will always be hidden away, whether they exist or not, and no turn of events ever happens except that they planned it and it profits them. Bullshit. The significance of Goldman's demise would depend on the form. If more than a few but more like a few hundred perps are guillotined, or if the modern equivalent thereof (full expropriation and upwards of 10 years in a prison suffices), then of course it makes a difference. Even every [b]reform[/b] worthy of the name counts.

Screw the preventive defeatism. I say it's either to pleasure you with the false idea that you're in a higher circle of knowing, functions to prevent us from ever addressing a broader audience, or effectively apologizes for the likes of Goldman Sachs and its pirate raiders. Since there's always some higher fucking Rothschild you imagine above them, why bother?