Goldman Sachs' Lost 'Ethos' Puts Traders -- And Profits -- Ahead Of Clients

nytimes.com:

But as President Obama prods the financial industry to do more to help ordinary Americans -- he chided 'fat cat' bankers -- on Sunday for increasing their pay some current and former Goldman executives say Mr. Blankfein has built a money machine that, while it still values its customers, culture and reputation, puts profits above all.

Interviews with nearly 20 current and former Goldman partners paint a portrait of a bank driven by hard-charging traders like Mr. Blankfein, who wager vast sums in world markets in hopes of quick profits.

Read the whole story: nytimes.com

Comments

[loki]

01:56 PM on 12/17/2009

first of all, why use baby speak "ethos" when Ethics is only one letter longer?

to get back to the story at hand, Ethics is something that the best Ivy Greed Schools Teach how to navigate around, while appearing to still be ethical, or Ehtos, as the googoogaagaa crowd call it.

[invest in jobs]

12:31 PM on 12/17/2009

Bernanke & the employees at Goldman are a bunch of rat basta4rds
good articles; http://financeopinionss.blogspot.com

It's despicable what's going on

[Rallis]

02:58 PM on 12/16/2009

there is no 'ethos' when the only goal is profit and provacative bank bonuses

[sonofsamphm1c]

12:53 PM on 12/16/2009

"After first guiding Goldman through the near collapse of the nation’s financial system and then deftly extricating his bank from a federal bailout, Mr. Blankfein is now presiding over one of the richest periods in the bank’s 140-year history. ..."

There wasn't much deftness to it. They started the bailout period with 112 billion is cash on hand. They accepted the financial institutions desperate need for TARP, so they took on 10 billion in TARP funds of which they had not one cent of need, and then they paid it back. This is a Gomer Pyle-level deal.

The rebound off a financial panic is an easy time to make money, and they're success there is no surprising.

[TXfemmom]

12:26 PM on 12/16/2009

Goldman is a criminal organization and should be treated as such.

[sonofsamphm1c]

12:55 PM on 12/16/2009

Good luck with your fact-free case. Maybe you'll get lucky and they're be a lynching - you know, how the fact-free mob hangs the innocent.

[StJames]

01:47 PM on 12/16/2009

GS innocent? Surely you jest.

[phree]

02:25 PM on 12/16/2009

GS is criminal as is all of Wall St. Their slogan is profits for people. If anyone regulating these guys had a shred of ethics, most of these people could be easily prosecuted for fraud, insider trading, larceny, etc. Even a substandard prosecutor could get it done, but alas no one involved with the banks, neither regulators nor government overseers has any interest in justice for the little people.

We're just cannon fodder; good enough to die in wars and steal money from, nothing more. Sadder that you support this.

[CAPTAINSKIPPY]

12:21 PM on 12/16/2009

Looks like GS could reduce their costs, save some money for clients, by outsourcing some operations overseas at lower cost locations, like India, China?

[sonofsamphm1c]

04:33 PM on 12/16/2009

Or Michigan.

[higherstrategy]

12:15 PM on 12/16/2009

Roulette addicts act the exact same way

[comicpro]

12:02 PM on 12/16/2009

Dude better start wearing bulletproof everything. Somewhere out these are some crazy people who are ready to take down Wall Street as they are truly to blame for the current crisis. Goldman makes me want to vomit and I said consistently from day 1 they are alive because of Hank Paulson bailing out AIG who would have sunk Goldman.

[sonofsamphm1c]

12:57 PM on 12/16/2009

On the AIG deal itself, Saddam Sachs very likely would have lost not one red cent.

And Baraofsky most definitely did not prove otherwise. Not even remotely close to proving otherwise.

[Manhattanite]

11:46 AM on 12/16/2009

Lost ethos? What ethos?

[denlong]

10:52 AM on 12/16/2009

Didn't even mention the rape of the shareholders!

[sweetnesstoday]

10:14 AM on 12/16/2009

Everything is OK becasue President Obama is cordially asking Loyd and his peers to behave.

[Jimboy17]

10:07 AM on 12/16/2009

After the fall, the legends will record the names of the demons who destroyed the human race. Blankfein will surely be among them.

[balancedsolution]

10:03 AM on 12/16/2009

this is the ethos that has become a virus in most industries, not just financial.

[ibsteve2u]

09:53 AM on 12/16/2009

"...driven by hard-charging traders like Mr. Blankfein, who wager vast sums in world markets in hopes of quick profits.."

This is why I'm somewhat cheered by the approaching Federal recognition of the Shinnecock native America Indian tribe (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/16/nyregion/16tribe.html).

As it stands now, Wall Street is a leech upon the American economy, "wagering" vast sums of other people's money, and skimming unbelievable ratios of the profits (oh, and their fees...their fees) for themselves. But they get to walk away from their losses - other people's losses, that is - laughing.

And both the wealthy and the working Americans whose money paves their way to extraordinary riches suffer for their greed - particularly when their greed pushes them that extra step into fraud and corruption, as is the norm of today's Wall Street.

But should the Shinnecock put a casino in NYC or Long Island...lolll...the egos of the fools won't permit them to resist flaunting their wealth by wagering vast sums in the spotlights of the tables...

And, consequentially, at least SOME of their parasitical gains will promptly flow back into America's economy, rather than offshore into the highly profitable stock markets of the "emerging economies" (that's a misnomer, now) to build new factories to take American jobs.

As it does now.

[StJames]

01:49 PM on 12/16/2009

Another great post.

[FoonTheElder]

09:36 AM on 12/16/2009

Lost ethos? You mean never had any ethos to lose, like most of Wall Street.