Goldman Sachs Mentioned By Media More Than Any Other Wall Street Firm This Year

The story is just one of many the media stories published about Goldman Sachs this year.

For the third time in a row, the investment bank was mentioned more than any other Wall Street firm by global media outlets this year, according to a study by HighBeam Research, cited in DealBook. Goldman netted nearly 16 percent of all media mentions of Wall Street firms during the first 10 months of 2011, followed by HSBC, Deutche Bank and Morgan Stanley, the survey found.

With so much controversy surrounding the financial industry, Goldman's top ranking may not be such a good thing for the investment bank. Goldman may have received the bulk of media mentions because it's often targeted as a major symbol of Wall Street's worst tendencies.

Regardless of reputation, Goldman has been associated with some notable media stories this year. A former director at the investment bank, Rajat Gupta surrendered last month in a high-profile insider trading case. The bank also suffered its second loss ever as a public company last quarter, posting a total revenue decline of 60 percent since the same period last year.

Jon Corzine, former CEO of MF Global -- the securities firm that's come under scrutiny after filling for bankruptcy -- also used to head Goldman.

Another big story that may have boosted Goldman's presence in the media: Occupy Wall Street. The investment bank reportedly told its employees last month to stay away from the protests in Zuccotti Park. In addition, Goldman dropped out of backing and attending a credit union fundraiser after finding out that Occupy Wall Street would be an honoree.

Coverage of the Occupy movement reached the same level as that of the Tea Party in early October, according to a study by the Pew Research Center cited in The New York Times. In addition, the protests took up 7 percent of national media coverage during the first week of October.

Though Goldman ranked number one of Wall Street firms in mentions in traditional media, another bank has been getting slammed on social media recently. Eighty-seven percent of Bank of America mentions on social media in the past year were negative, according to Marketwire.

BofA was roundly criticized by consumers and law makers after announcing that it would charge customers $5 per month to use their debit cards starting in 2012. The bank ultimately back-tracked from the fee earlier this month.

 

 

Comments

[drbob601]

08:33 PM on 11/09/2011

Vampire squid !

[trailerguy]

10:38 AM on 11/09/2011

Golman sachs have earned the media glare. The more people know about them the madder they will get and we can begin to reregulate.

[LivingDebtFree]

09:16 AM on 11/09/2011

President Obama's non-confirmation appointments to his economic team from Goldman Sachs and some of the money they "earned" from them:

* Larry Summers, Obama's chief economic adviser, was paid $5.2 million for his part-time work for a massive hedge fund in 2008 alone. He also took in more than $2.7 million in fees for speaking engagement­­­­s at such places as Citigroup, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs -- including one visit alone that netted him $135,000 from Goldman Sachs.
* Gene Sperling, a top adviser to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, in 2008 earned $887,727 from Goldman Sachs simply for providing "advice on charitable giving." He also made $158,000 for speeches mostly to financial companies.

* Mark Patterson, Geithner's chief of staff, was one of the top lobbyists at Goldman Sachs before joining the Obama campaign. He took in what seemed at first glance to be a relatively modest-by-­­­­Goldman­-­s­t­anda­rd­s salary of $637,230 in 2008. It turns out that was only for three months' work -- he left Goldman in early April. Until then, his title had been vice president for government relations, and he acted as a lobbyist on a wide range of issues including tax treatment of corporate reorganiza­­­­tion transactio­­­­ns, nonbinding shareholde­­­­r votes on executive compensati­­­­on, and over-the-c­­­­ounter energy derivative­­­­s.”

[MissinAmerica]

08:09 AM on 11/09/2011

They're about to be mentioned more this year...Here
is an exerpt from a book coming out soon, "Vulture's Picnic":

"...Greece is a crime scene. The people are victims of a fraud, a scam, a hustle and a flim-flam. And––cover the children's ears when I say this––a bank named Goldman Sachs is holding the smoking gun.

********

In 2002, Goldman Sachs secretly bought up €2.3 billion in Greek government debt, converted it all into yen and dollars, then immediately sold it back to Greece.

Goldman took a huge loss on the trade.

Is Goldman that stupid?

Goldman is stupid—like a fox. The deal was a con, with Goldman making up a phony-baloney exchange rate for the transaction. Why?

Goldman had cut a secret deal with the Greek government in power then. Their game: to conceal a massive budget deficit. Goldman's fake loss was the Greek government's fake gain.

http://www.gregpalast.com/lazy-ouzo-swilling-olive-pit-spitting-greeksor-how-goldman-sacked-greece/

[NadieAtall]

04:47 AM on 11/09/2011

They had a very suspicious role in derivatives investments with Gaddafi, tanking Libya's sovereign wealth fund and drawing Gaddafi's anger shortly before the US decided that Gaddafi was suddenly no longer an ally, and needed to be removed.
They also falsified Greece's economic data, resulting in Greek economic failure and a chain reaction of panic and default that may ruin the Euro.
They have a prior record of doing similar things in the buildup to the 2008 US economic collapse.
Just follow the devastation, and there you will find Goldman Sachs.

[NadieAtall]

04:37 AM on 11/09/2011

http://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2011/05/31/goldman-sachs-lost-98-of-libyas-1-3b-sovereign-wealth-fund-investment/

They're also responsible for the collapse of Greece, and, consequentially, the Euro.

[rubrducky999]

03:23 AM on 11/09/2011

Here's a list of Goldman Sachs employees now working on Obamas staff...

Lael Brainard: Brainard is the United States Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs in the administration of Obama

Gregory Craig: Former White House Counsel, Recently hired by Goldman Sachs

Thomas Donilon: Deputy National Security Adviser

William C. Dudley : president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, partner and managing director at Goldman

Douglas Elmendorf: Obama Director of the Congressional Budget Office in January 2009

Rahm Emanuel: Obama Chief of staff...gone now

Dianna Farrell: Obama Administration: Deputy Director, National Economic Council, Former Goldman Sachs Title: Financial Analyst

Stephen Friedman: Obama Administration: Chairman, President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, Former Goldman Sachs Title: Board Member

And the list goes on and on....

Michael Frohman,

Anne Fudge,

Jason Furman,

Timothy Geithner,

Gary Gensler,

Michael Greenstone,

Robert Hormats,

Neel Kashkari,

Karen Kornbluh,

Jack Lew,

David Lipton,

Emil Michael,

Philip Murphy

Peter Orszag

Mark Patterson

Mark Peterson

Steve Ratner

Robert Reischauer

Alice Rivlin

James Rubin

Gene Sperling

Adam Storch

Larry Summers

John Thain



http://www.nachumlist.com/goldmansachsobama.htm

[LivingDebtFree]

09:17 AM on 11/09/2011

Awesome and comprehensive list. See my posts on his economic policy appointments. Thank you!

[barbra1971]

02:12 AM on 11/09/2011

The Large Families that rule the world
18.10.2011
Some people have started realizing that there are large financial groups that dominate the world. Forget the political intrigues, conflicts, revolutions and wars. It is not pure chance. Everything has been planned for a long time.

To try to answer this question, we can start with the easiest: inventory, the world's largest banks, and see who the shareholders are and who make the decisions.
The world's largest companies are now: Bank of America, JP Morgan, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

Let us now review who their shareholders are.
http://english.pravda.ru/business/finance/18-10-2011/119355-The_Large_Families_that_rule_the_world-0/
In short: the eight largest U.S. financial companies (JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, U.S. Bancorp, Bank of New York Mellon and Morgan Stanley) are 100% controlled by ten shareholders and we have four companies always present in all decisions: BlackRock, State Street, Vanguard and Fidelity.

In short, the Federal Reserve is controlled by four large private companies: BlackRock, State Street, Vanguard and Fidelity. These companies control U.S. monetary policy (and world) without any control or "democratic" choice. These companies launched and participated in the current worldwide economic crisis and managed to become even more enriched.

[justanoldhippie]

02:04 AM on 11/09/2011

Everyone should pay attention to Goldman Sachs.

Goldman Sachs => Romney Campaign: $354,700 (as of last reporting period)

Goldman Sachs => Obama Campaign: $49,124 (as of last reporting period)

link: http://www.opensecrets.org/

This is what is public, on the books. Imagine how much money they have contributed via Super PACs, PACs, etc that can be unlimited and can be used against (instead of for) a campaign.

Scary. There is a reason their name is "out there".

[NadieAtall]

01:42 AM on 11/09/2011

They don't own the world per se, but no government would dare cross them. If your country is ripped off by Goldman Sachs, it's best just to eat the losses, and seek a long-term "bailout" loan from an international fund so that Goldman gets its money, and you can pay it off gradually by selling your resources. Government leaders that cross this company always seem to make the US/UN sh*tlist, and end up out of office or worse.

[Lauteur Calme]

12:22 AM on 11/09/2011

As a distant observer, it seems that the deliberate and catastroph­ic mispricing of risks in mortgage backed securities sold by Wall St. throughout the world, is one of the most egregious, crafty, successful and fraudulent schemes ever played on investors!

As incompeten­t U.S. politician­s (i.e., Paulson, Bush, Cheney, Levin, Shelby, Dodd, Bernake, Geithner, Clinton, Ruben, Greenspan) did nothing to prevent it, their Wall St. cronies & lobbyists laughed their way to the bank by betting against the same structured products in which they sold throughout the world.

Perhaps, the central question is how could politicians and bankers rape and pillage the financial system of a country for so long through deception and fraud without being accountable? (i.e., think 401k, real estate, giving millions of tax payer $ to countries(Israel, Egypt, Pakistan, Jordan, Kenya, Mexico, South Africa, Nigeria), bailing out N.Y.C. in the 70's, Paulson using tax payer $ for what in essence was a coup d'etat of the U.S. Treasury, etc...)

Wow, isn't capitalism great in the U.S.?

As a Chinese economist recently stated, where ever there is wealth in the world, Wall St. will find a way to steal it while politician­s do nothing to prevent it...

The stench of the financial crisis created by Wall St. and allowed by U.S. politician­s permeates from Shangai to Dubai...!

[barbra1971]

02:27 AM on 11/09/2011

Laurence D. Fink, Robert S. Kapito
In 1988, Kapito left First Boston along with Laurence D. Fink and founded BlackRock under the umbrella of the private equity firm Blackstone where they joined as partners. In 1992, BlackRock was spun out from Blackstone and became an independent company.

Today, BlackRock is the world's largest asset management firm with over $3.5 trillion in assets under management. BlackRock currently manages over $3.5 trillion of assets across equity, fixed income, real estate, liquidity and alternative strategies. Through BlackRock Solutions, the Firm provides risk management and enterprise investment services for approximately $9 trillion of assets.
More here:
Role in 2008-2009 Bailout, Management of Maiden Lane Portfolios (and a lot more...)

http://publicintelligence.net/blackrock-inc/

[medialv2]

11:29 PM on 11/08/2011

The Most Mentioned Wall Street "Inbreeder Gang" In Media This Year

[BigDaddyWow]

09:56 PM on 11/08/2011

It's good that they remain in the limelight. They are a true scourge on America.

[rikster]

08:39 PM on 11/08/2011

you mean the one that runs the USA...

[axoaxo]

07:13 PM on 11/08/2011

GovermentSachs is more like it ... the documentary "Inside Job" lays out the case quite well