Goldman Sachs CEO Blankfein says firm is doing 'God's work'
Filed under: Company News, Earnings, Goldman Sachs
Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO of Goldman Sachs (GS), has put an unusual spin on the bank's activities. He says his firm is doing "God's work." This may seem like an audacious statement coming from a man whose company has been harshly criticized for planning to give many of its employees multi-million pay packages just a bit more than a year after the collapse of the credit markets.
Blankfein told The Times of London, "We help companies to grow by helping them to raise capital. Companies that grow create wealth. This, in turn, allows people to have jobs that create more growth and more wealth. We have a social purpose." That is, of course, a social purpose that comes at a very steep price; it charges huge fees for raising money and handling M&A transactions, even if they eventually fail.
Goldman may be trying to publicize its role as a firm that finances the American economy and to hide its role in helping to create and market exotic money instruments like mortgage-backed securities. It wants the public to forget the money it made on the capital that the government gave it under the TARP program, and forget that it is not willing to reign in pay for even a year as a sort of penance for the financial community's and its own contributions to the collapse of the financial markets -- a collapse which has helped put millions of people out of jobs.
Goldman is in the enviable position of not owing the federal government any money, and it is not under the thumb of the Treasury Department's pay czar. The new Fed program to tie executive compensation to risk may simply be ignored by Goldman, or at least not taken very seriously when the firm sets pay.
Goldman has decided to take a risk that may end up paying off. Goldman is fabulously wealthy and seems to care nothing about public opinion; it is essentially thumbing its nose at the world because it can. The Treasury, the Fed, and Congress have more immediate problems than the paychecks of Goldman managers, and it may well stay that way.
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 24/7 Wall St.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 11)
11-09-2009 @ 7:04AM
Jake said...
G.W. BUSH said the same thing .. off his medication again. Investigate G.S. and the FEDERAL RESERVE for PROFITEERING on the baskc of MIDDLE CLASS and USA economy. When were the private banks that make up the FERDERAL RESERVE audited last ?
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11-09-2009 @ 3:31PM
clem said...
who is to blame?, the bush bunch that said we weren't in a recession?, or the obama boys saying it is over?. or the meddle class that had their head up their a ss?, I would say the blame lands on the meddle class that was happy with more casinos, cable sports, and fuller baskets of china junk bought at wall mart. nothing will change until there is some real pain for those stuck in the meddle when the pain is felt by the meddle I would hate to be on the other side. WE MUST ADIT THE FEDERAL RESERVE TO HEAD OFF A BLOOD BATH, AH HELL I DON"T CARE IT WILL BE WALL STREET AND THE CONGANKERS BLOOD
11-09-2009 @ 7:04AM
mark stewart said...
what about the 12 billion they funneled to them through aig
for insurance on stuff both sides knew was worthless
while they both sides were collecting their bonuses
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11-09-2009 @ 7:05AM
bambam262626 said...
Yes kneel down to these corporate pigs that devalued GM and brought
the American economy to its knees. Great job fat Sachs.
And FYI... Mergers and Acquisitions usually fail. It's more like
handing over a Blank check to the devil than it is god's work.
Pompous Untruths are not Godlike. Get a grip!
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11-09-2009 @ 7:19AM
jim said...
typical arrogance from the cabal that runs wall street
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11-09-2009 @ 7:45AM
Ron said...
We REALLY need a nutcase to get loose in Goldman Sachs screaming he's "doing Gods work!" whilst he does very bad things to every outrageously overpaid G-S manager he can find. I personally would have no sympathy.
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11-10-2009 @ 11:38PM
Anonymous said...
This is the best advise I've heard yet.
11-09-2009 @ 8:24AM
Lord Enki said...
What is this guy smoking or snorting?
Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO of Goldman Sachs (GS), has put an unusual spin on the bank's activities. He says his firm is doing "God's work."
Reply
11-09-2009 @ 9:35PM
George said...
I didn't know that God ran a criminal enterprise. You learn something new every day!
11-09-2009 @ 8:09AM
Dwayne said...
Grace's Lyrics says it all - CORPORATE CANNIBAL:
Pleased to meet you, pleased to have you on my plate
your meat is sweet to me
your destiny
your fate
you’re my life support, your life is my sport
I’m a man-eating machine
you won’t hear me laughing, as i terminate your day
you can’t trace my footsteps, as i walk the other way
i can’t get enough prey, pray for me
(i’m a man-eating machine)
corporate cannibal, digital criminal
corporate cannibal, eat you like an animal
employer of the year, grandmaster of fear
my blood flows satanical,
mechanical, masonical and chemical
habitual ritual
i’m a man-eating machine..
i deal in the market, every man, woman and child is a target
a closet full of faceless nameless pay more for less empitness
i’ll make you scrounge, in my executive lounge
you pay less tax, but i’ll gain more back
my rules, you fools
we can play the money game
greedgame, power game, stay insane
lost in the cell, in this hell
slave to the rhythm of the corporate prison
i’m a man-eating machine…
i can’t get enough prey
pray for me
corporate cannibal…
digital criminal…
i’ll consume my consumers, with no sense of humour
i’ll give you a uniform, chloroform
sanatize, homogenize, vaporize… you
i’m the spark, make the world explode
i’m a man-eating machine, i’ll make the world explode
corporate cannibal…
Reply
11-09-2009 @ 9:51AM
Bonnie said...
Fantastic poem!! That says is all thanks for sharing
11-09-2009 @ 9:38PM
Keith said...
He just re-wrote the lyrics to "Sympathy for the Devil".
11-09-2009 @ 8:45AM
joefabitz said...
when your one of your ties costs as much as many families' food budget for the week...you're NOT doing God's work!
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11-09-2009 @ 9:20AM
williambanzai7 said...
" 'For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away, even that he hath'.
This passage of course refers to the acquisition of more knowledge of the truth as theologians tell us; but the Money Kings of Wall Street like to give its interpretation a little twist in their favor, and say that it refers to the acquisition of more greenbacks, by the big fellows from the little ones.
In fact this class of people appear to hold the opinion that if they would succeed in anything questionable or crooked, there is nothing like misinterpreting the scriptures their own way, so as to apparently justify them in their rascality before the public.
The connection of such men with churches...has done more to spread infidelity and cast ridicule upon the good cause of the church than almost anything else.
The success of this class of gamblers has an influence for evil upon the business world that is little realize, success through their methods being a contradiction to the good old business maxim that 'Honesty is the best policy' and a travesty upon it."
FRANKLIN KEYES ESQ. 1901
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11-09-2009 @ 3:44PM
terrygandreasen said...
If I remember right, didn't Christ run the "money changers" out of the temple with a whip? I think it's time we did the same with Wall Street. Such arrogance to mention God in the same breath as Goldman Sachs or any financial leaches!
11-09-2009 @ 8:48AM
Ernest said...
Yep, He’s doing Gods Work. He is making the world a worst place to live and haven a better place to escape too. Only problem, this arrogant bastard is making a lot more people suffer until judgment day.
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11-09-2009 @ 8:50AM
NOENERGYFUTURES said...
WHAT A JOKE....G.S., AIG, BOA HAVE DONE MORE HARM THAN YOU THINK TO AMERICA...AND DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE SPECUALTORS WHO TODAY ARE SPINNING THE "POSSIBLE STORM DAMAGE" TO GULF PLATFORMS TO JUSTIFY JACKING ENERGY FUTURES....NEVER MIND THAT CRUDE/GAS SUPPLIES ARE AT 8 YEAR HIGHS AND THAT THIS STORM WILL CAUSE ZERO DAMAGE. WHEN ARE WE GOING TO CHANGE THIS????
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11-09-2009 @ 11:13AM
Richard said...
That's an interesting observation. Did you know that a hedge fund called Amaranth went bankrupt to the tune of $6 billion as a result of oil price speculation and the gamble on a busted weather forecast for the 2006 hurricane season?
When Hurricane Katrina damaged hundreds of oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico in 2005 Amaranth gambled that the 2006 hurricane season would also cause extensive damage to the oil platforms, thereby driving up the price of oil and gasoline. They gambled and lost. But, no matter, there's always other scams going like junk bonds, derivatives and credit default swaps. Or, whatever new game the Wall Street hucksters can dream up.
11-09-2009 @ 8:57AM
stinky said...
nice god
Reply
11-09-2009 @ 9:08AM
matt said...
Lloyd Becarefully what you are saying. If you had ever read a bible you would know better than to make this statement.
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