Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein: We've Got '30,000 People Who Felt The Opposite' Of Greg Smith

Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and CEO of The Goldman Sachs Group, testifies before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Investigations Subcommittee on Capitol Hill on April 27, 2010.

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein admitted on Wednesday that his bank has a public relations problem, but insisted it does not have a problem with how it treats its clients.

In an interview with CNBC, Blankfein said the response from clients was "overwhelmingly positive" to the infamous op-ed in the New York Times, in which Greg Smith, a former Goldman vice president, said the firm placed its own interest above that of its clients.

"We had one person who was very earnest about what he had written, but 30,000 people who felt the opposite," Blankfein said, referring to other Goldman employees, "and clients who were unbelievably supportive."

Nonetheless, Blankfein said, the firm reacted to the op-ed with "shock" and took it "very seriously," launching an internal investigation into Smith's allegations. After combing through performance reviews, including those Smith had written of his colleagues, and searching the firm for emails calling clients "muppets," a slang term for idiots, the firm found no evidence to back up Smith's claims, Blankfein said.

But he also acknowledged the op-ed did damage to the firm's public image -- already on shaky ground after the firm was hung with the "Vampire Squid" label by Matt Taibbi. Blankfein suggested that may have been one reason he was willing to sit down for a live interview for the first time in two years. Update: Charlie Gasparino at Fox Business Network reports that this is precisely the reason Blankfein was out sweating in front of TV cameras on Wednesday, including a second interview with Bloomberg TV.

"It occurred to us that we haven't gotten everything right with regard to how we've dealt with the public," Blankfein told CNBC. " We have no real consumer business, so we haven't really had those muscles."

He was even more apologetic in his Bloomberg interview, saying, "It turns out, another name for consumers are citizens and taxpayers. ... They always should have been important, but it wasn't part of our audience as we thought about it. Now we will have to develop those muscles a little better than we have. Shame on us."

Blankfein also said he had "no plans" to step down as CEO of Goldman. He said he had "no idea" where reporters such as Fortune's Katie Benner, who has written that Blankfein could step down by the summer, could have gotten such an idea.

He also took a philosophical view about financial-sector regulation in the wake of the crisis, saying Goldman could benefit from safer financial markets.

"I don't like everything proposed, but the idea that we have to have some sort of reform is obvious," he said. "You couldn't deny that."

Though he didn't repeat his past claim that Goldman was doing "God's work," he did defend Wall Street.

"Our industry is hugely important for the world," he said. "We finance growth."

Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly identified the Fox Business Network as Fox Business News.

Comments

[optomist1]

08:14 PM on 04/28/2012

Lloyd "Black Swan Blankfein = Consummate Putz

[nypapajoe]

12:28 PM on 04/26/2012

The "God Father" of the Organized Crime Family of Wall St and the Banks! These guys in multi thousand dollar suits and shoes, living in mahattan pent houses make the Mafia seem like Bafoons!

[Paris215]

12:18 PM on 04/26/2012

Seriously Mr. 'Blankfeinde'...That's really funny.. more like 30,000 that still want to keep their jobs!

[purplejesus]

12:02 PM on 04/26/2012

FU Lloyd!!

[Ian OFull]

11:30 AM on 04/26/2012

When they finally go out of business will be an exceptional day. I hope this CEO is at the helm as it goes under.

[ColoradoCool]

01:30 PM on 04/26/2012

I won't feel there has been any real change to the financial industry until Blankfein is behind bars.

[bichn]

10:59 AM on 04/26/2012

w a n k e r

[Captain Hindsight]

10:50 AM on 04/26/2012

And I'm sure they are well compensated for their loyalty.

[waitforitwaitforit]

10:31 AM on 04/26/2012

Blankfein is a slimeoid.

[Lindytindy]

09:29 AM on 04/26/2012

LOL. Deluded sociopathic CEO's always think their employees love them and are happy little dwarves, singing along in their happy workplace. In reality, you know what I'm saying, they dream about finding goons like Blankfein alone in a parking garage at night where they could apply the Louisville slugger solution to their misery to his funky little head.

[ochaye]

09:14 AM on 04/26/2012

Break up the banks.

[Gilbert Albright]

08:40 AM on 04/26/2012

Yeah and if any of those 30,000 employees DARE say they agree with Greg Smith, they will be FIRED! Of COURSE they say the opposite of Greg Smith. They want to keep their jobs.

[John Shuck]

08:39 AM on 04/26/2012

Wasn't it Upton Sinclair who said, "The hardest thing is to get someone to see the truth when his job depends on him not seeing it." Or words to that effect. Go ahead dittoheads, defend this man. Then go back to sweeping Aisle 17 at KMart.

[Lindytindy]

09:31 AM on 04/26/2012

The way corporate life works is like this, they terrorize their employees into making statements like this, or lose their jobs or be tormented in other insidious ways. They are closed, Stalin like societies with many effective means to enforce make pretend 'happiness'.

[phatdaddy51]

08:34 AM on 04/26/2012

you've got 30,000 employees that'll say whatever you tell 'em to say......thief

[frank day]

08:30 AM on 04/26/2012

yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir

yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir

yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir

yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir

yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir

[Mrald]

08:30 AM on 04/26/2012

Hmmm..."..we finance growth "..?? right, and I am the tooth fairy !!!!! LOL

[Lindytindy]

09:32 AM on 04/26/2012

Yes, so true. He's another one of the 'job creators' who are strangling our real economy and causing it to fail. Isn't this the fool who said he's doing God's work? More like the devil.