Goldman Sachs Just Can't Feel the Love

Goldman Sachs (GS) is perhaps the most hated corporation in America right now. They are taking flak from all sides. Here are just a couple examples:

So, when the public sees those firms pay out huge bonuses again, it should be understandable that commentators such as Matt Taibbi at Rolling Stone conclude that Goldman Sachs is like “a giant vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity.”

Perhaps Goldman is somewhat more respectable than that. But Volcker is surely right that trading firms that are not deposit-taking institutions should not benefit systematically from any actual or implicit taxpayer guarantees. Whatever the new system is to be post-crisis, such guarantees need to be stopped or the whole system really will be undermined by moral hazard.

Vampire squid needs to be taken off the menu Neil Wilson, Absolute Return + Alpha, September 22, 2009

Blankfein’s trickle-down catechism isn’t working. Now we have two economies. We have recovering banks while we have 10-plus percent unemployment and 17.5 percent underemployment. The gross thing about the Wall Street of the last decade is how much its success was not shared with society.

Goldmine Sachs, as it’s known, is out for Goldmine Sachs.

As many Americans continue to struggle, Goldman, Morgan Stanley (MS) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM), banks that took government bailout money after throwing the entire world into crisis, have said they will dish out $30 billion in bonuses — up 60 percent from last year.

Virtuous Bankers? Really!?! Maureen Down, New York Times Editorial, November 11, 2009

Comments

[TradingHelpDesk]

GS is hated as more and more Americans are learning the GS style of trading has zero economic benefits. It's just redistributing wealth from the pension and mutual funds of middle America to the bonuses of GS traders and executives.

How does trading billions of dollars worth of equities every day create jobs in Main Street? It doesn't. Their prop desk reminds me of the market timing debacle in Wall St about 6-7 years ago.

2009 Nov 15 04:49 AM

[Ferdinand E. Banks]

"Goldman Sachs is out for Goldman Sachs." That's Adam Smith isn't it. You certainly don't think that the groovy Adam is wrong, do you?

2009 Nov 15 08:39 AM

[Skillet1]

What's the point of this article? the author quoted two different sources and that pretty much sums up the entire article. Why bother writing? Could you please think of a little more original content before you actually hit the "publish" button. Thank you.

2009 Nov 15 07:00 PM