Greg Smith's Goldman Sachs Resignation Sparks Predictably Hilarious Twitter Explosion

A Goldman Sachs executive revealed today that he was bronze medalist in the Jewish Olympics. Okay, he also said his now-former firm refers to its clients as muppets, among other critical Goldman observations, in a resignation letter submitted to the Wall Street titan in the form of a New York Times Op-Ed.

Yes, Greg Smith gave the Twitterverse the equivalent of a financial Red Bull Wednesday morning, as he detailed what he describes as the erosion of the firm's culture over his 12-year tenure. Once, he says, Goldman Sachs was a place that cared about client success, and now it is little more than a profit-center that wants to rip those same clients off. As an aside, Smith inexplicably didn't know where the bathroom was when he was first starting out at Goldman.

Though Smith's Op-Ed gives evidence what some have long said about Goldman -- cue links to Taibbi's Vampire Squid article, basically all Occupy Wall Street coverage and parody twitter GS Elevator -- the famed investment bank is notoriously private, so don't expect a flood of similar outcry.

Indeed, Goldman banned the use of Facebook among its employees as of last year, according to Fast Company, despite investing millions in the social networking site. The firm additionally blocked its workers from commenting on popular Wall Street site Dealbreaker. Thankfully, that didn't stop Twitter from doing its thing.

Here are some of the funniest reactions to Smith’s super public resignation:

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Comments

[JMB0603]

10:04 PM on 03/15/2012

One vacant position in Goldman Sachs just opened...time to apply! :-P

[Hardyman1966]

09:16 PM on 03/15/2012

On one hand, kudos to Greg Smith.

On the other, who let in Snow White?

[sfizi]

04:46 PM on 03/15/2012

Just another thief

[twodamngoon]

02:27 PM on 03/15/2012

A culture of deceit that is proudly cited by the financier class??? I blame the Unions!

[sammyscout]

07:26 AM on 03/17/2012

I blame your parents

[Maurice D Randle]

01:48 PM on 03/15/2012

All I have to say is KUDOS to this guy Greg Smith, the REAL Good Guy Greg lolol j/k. For real though, I'm not mad @ him for working @ Goldman-Sachs; mostly anybody would want to work for a huge world-renowned bank. However, he saw everything that was going wrong and exposed it in such a way that wouldn't negatively affect his career and which didn't go to the extreme of releasing company secrets which would damage the company (which I would have honestly preferred). I hope Mr. Smith has a great life and doesn't end up in the same position @ another morally bankrupt institution.

Check out my take on the 2008 Financial Crisis:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMP7UOP-qA8&list=UUNQVYqBXG3qFOiNxqkSbusw&index=1&feature=plcp

[muck-raker]

07:23 AM on 03/15/2012

LOOK at all the damage that deregulation has caused: EMERGENCY RESOLUTION: Glass Steagall Now!
April 27, 2011 • 5:37AM
The current weight of trillions of dollars in gambling debts, foisted on the U.S. taxpayers in the 2008-2011 bailout of Wall St. and the City of London, is currently obliterating and destroying the economy of the United States and its people. We must change course immediately.

The first step is to reinstate Glass-Steagall. Without a return to the original Franklin Roosevelt Glass-Steagall standard, there is no possibility of the continued existence of the United States, as economist Lyndon LaRouche has insisted. Only the re-imposition of the FDR Glass-Steagall principle will separate commercial from speculative banking, thus freeing the nation from obligations to Wall St. and the City of London, and re-establishing a credit system for rebuilding the nation.

H.R. 1489, the Return to Prudent Banking Act of 2011, is now before the House of Representatives, which aims "to ... revive the separation between commercial banking and the securities business, in the manner provided in the Banking Act of 1933, the so-called 'Glass-Steagall Act.'"

We, the undersigned, therefore demand that Congress immediately act to pass H.R. 1489, and identical legislation in the Senate, as the indispensable first measure to save the nation.

[jroycrs]

11:05 AM on 03/17/2012

That's what the repubs have caused. he repubs want to further deregulate saying businesses cannot function with regulation. So we will have more and more of this and the type of oil spill we had a year ago if the repubs get in power. Banish all repubs from both the senate and the congress and America will be back on firm footing.

[aquarius254]

01:49 AM on 03/15/2012

They are a pox upon our country.

The worst of what capitalism can be.

[jroycrs]

11:06 AM on 03/17/2012

All caused by the repubs desire to remove all regulation and they are fighting for more.

[shart10125]

11:41 PM on 03/14/2012

Bank of America. Goldman Sachs. Why we occupy!

[jstanavgguy]

08:00 AM on 03/15/2012

Want free stuff.

Whining that your Basket Weaving degree has not gotten you a six figure job with a corner office.

Why you occupy.............................

[goodmarina]

02:17 PM on 03/15/2012

how silly of you to limit your assumptions to your bias ... 

what do you say to all those retired Veterans, Teachers, Law Enforcement folks, and a whole host of folks who come from various walks of life ...  

did you know that there are plenty of folks who make millions who have marched and supported this cause?

the folks who demand accountability and the same direct access these large financial institutions have to Congress aren't a bunch of unemployable hippies ... hardly -- many have jobs and speak out for those who don't or to improve the condition for all consumers.

[shart10125]

08:05 PM on 03/15/2012

BOA and GS are not producers. They are takers.

[smo1111]

02:02 PM on 03/15/2012

F&F!

[Orodomiscovero]

09:09 PM on 03/14/2012

G-Sachs' - and that of thier investment banking ilk on Wall Street - general earings philosophy is simple. You make lots of money in the gray areas by ensuring they enrich their political clients, who then join them in their criminal activity, reducing the possibility thier "clients" will overregulate them. Then they buy bad debt. Everything going along swimmingly until Mr. Smith decided to quit and run to the Feds....how about them apples boyeeeeeees? Kind of interesting to wonder why a rat would up and leave a ripening garbage pile though........? Somethin's up.

[jroycrs]

11:08 AM on 03/17/2012

All this is happening because the repubs want no regulations and want to remove all regs because they think businesses cannot function with the govt regs. Shame on the repub party. Get the repubs in power and they will DESTROY by beloved America.

[Orodomiscovero]

08:57 PM on 03/14/2012

Oooooops! Looks like the rats are getting tired of living in the swamp! G-Sachs better get on the phone and call up thier good ratings buddies at Moodys to fix things up quick!

[CaptainRenault]

06:38 PM on 03/14/2012

I am absolutely loving this. Mr. Smith's letter is very well written and does a great job of outlining the corrupted sulture of the "Vampire Squid".

For those who have not read Matt Tiabbi's pice about GS in Rolling Stone, I highly recommend it. There is a link to it in this HP article.

Thank you Greg, and thank you NY Times editorial page for putting it front and center for pubilc consumption. I would consider this a PSA.

^ ^

[jroycrs]

11:09 AM on 03/17/2012

Repubs are responsible for this mess. The pres has instituted some very minor (I think) regs and the repubs even want that lifted. The repubs claim that if there are regs, they are burdensome to the businesses and they cannot function. Put the repubs in power and they will destroy America.

[CaptainRenault]

01:23 PM on 03/17/2012

In many ways I agree, but let us not discount the power of the banking lobby. The K Street machine is very effective and the reason that D-F was not more robust is due in large part because of it. To some degree this is a bi-partisan activity, although I certainly concur that the GOP is far worse.

All the same, my commentary is more about Smith having the courage to go public and further reinforce something that many of us already knew, in no small part due to one Matt Tiabbi, *Rolling Stone* columnist who coined the term "vampire squid". He (Smith) has credibility as a former insider with some standing.

I can only hope that this acts as a catalyst to action by the government to further investigate GS's actions vis-a-vis its clients and for Congress to pass meaningful reform in order to curb this behavior that Smith and Tiabbi describe.

^ ^

[MichaelMcKLA]

05:15 PM on 03/14/2012

Sorta reminds me of the movie Jerry Maguire, where Tom Cruise hands out his infamous culture-changing document. LOL

[Json]

02:44 PM on 03/16/2012

Except that he had the balls to do it while working there. Unlike Smith, who suddenly located his sack (Sach?) after quitting.

[yappnmutt]

04:06 PM on 03/14/2012

the really funny thing is that these guys must have learned in econ101 that money is about acting in one's rational self interest but when they see someone acting rationally self interested they are appalled.

[CaptainRenault]

06:39 PM on 03/14/2012

In Ethics 101 you don't deliberately screw your clients, in no small part because you have a fiduciary duty to them.

^ ^

[Rob8001]

08:51 PM on 03/14/2012

EXACTLY. Wall Street has become nothing less than criminal.

[sheila]

08:55 PM on 03/14/2012

bankers, curiously, do not suffer from the burdens of being fiduciaries, probably because they could never hurt anyone? or is it maybe because they keep bribing legislators to block legislation that would hold them to the same standards as lawyers and CPAs?

[StJames]

07:51 PM on 03/14/2012

Are you applying for a job at GS?  Sounds like you would fit it.  BTW, there is a fiduciary responsibility that GS seems to have forgotten about.  After spending 130 years building their reputation for taking good care of their clients, they have spent the last 14 screwing over those clients.

[Twayn]

03:48 PM on 03/14/2012

I watched the slideshow, and I'm still waiting for the hilarity to ensue. What I did get was that Wall Street guys can be massive @$$holes.

[Odyssey51]

03:21 PM on 03/14/2012

Return to Steagall-Glass.

[CaptainRenault]

06:40 PM on 03/14/2012

Or Glass-Steagall.

^ ^

[Rob8001]

08:53 PM on 03/14/2012

Exactly correct. A mere 37 page document/law that was torn about by Clinton and Bush. It was put in place after the depression to prevent the what happen. So they replace it with Dodd-Frank, which is, I believe 3,200 pages.

[jroycrs]

11:12 AM on 03/17/2012

That would be the ideal situation, but the repubs will not let that happen. Yes there are only a couple of dems that would go with them. Basically the repubs are against all regs, because they want to see America destroyed.

[CaptainRenault]

01:31 PM on 03/17/2012

Agree more with the method of their practices than your conclusion. . . Specifically, I think the reason that the GOP does what it does is to perpetuate its hold on power by rigging the rules to favor the wealthy and benefitting on the other side of that by large campaign contributions (to the RNC, super-PACs and 501c(3)s). In effect, they want a plutocracy, where the wealthy--their benefactors--have a hugely disproportionate voice to the average American who cannot afford to hire lobbyists and are not united enough to speak in one voice.

They still need the average American to be successful, because many of them are doing the work that keep the wealthy, well, wealthy.

^ ^