I think he is done in finance in general, unless he decides to work in BO.
I always hear people complaining about GS (and other financial institutions) “taking the other side of a trade.” Aren’t they just insuring against the deal going sour and minimizing their risk in case of adverse outcomes. Why is this so wrong?
What a self-asborbed asshole. This guy is no hero. Did he want to be famous for the day? I’ve had friends burn out after 12 years at Goldman Sachs. It’s hard work and they want to move on. But airing your dirty laundry is a low class move in my books. I also don’t buy this guys “moral conundrum.” 12 years is a very long time to decide what you’re doing is wrong and move on. If an S.S. guard had worked at 12 years at Buchenwald and then decided it was wrong, should I call him a hero? 12 years is also, more importantly, a long time to be only a “Vice-President,” at the firm (This was his actual rank, ignore the NY Times Executive Director thing). Clearly he got passed up for promotion and reached the ceiling. Clearly he was disgruntled. Here’s how I know. That second to last paragraph regarding his proudest moments in life is a complete non-sequitur unless if you understand what this letter is really about: the thoughts of a guy with a massive ego, who throws in the towel, and needs to justify this publicly by displaying his mantle of achievements to the world which, I’ll add sadly, all happened a long time ago. There is no reason to personalize this letter and talk about himself at length as he does. Sure, if he wants to make a claim about clients being treated unfairly that is one thing. I’d be very interested in hearing that opinion in minute detail, especially if I were a client, but I don’t really care if he was bronze medalist at the Jewish Olympics or if he was in the training video. He gives us no juicy details, doesn’t name names, and concedes that he hasn’t seen anything illegal. Fuck, you’re telling me that you’ve worked at a place for 12 years and never seen anything illegal. Hmmm. That’s pretty good for Goldman. I sure as Hell have at my firm, Greg Smith. There is a reason Jerry Mcquire gets sacked. Because the guy is too self absorbed drinking his scientology “Me, Me, Me,” Kool-Aid to understand that other people’s lives and families depend on the work that their firm does. This guy belongs on a college campus not in the real world. Fuck You Greg Smith.
Agree with you there Chicken.
This isn’t about GS, it’s about Greg Smirth. Heck I don’t even like GS but I still agree with Chicken.
Until further info comes up, I’m going to give the benefit of the doubt to Greg Smith that he knows what he’s talking about and that he’s trying to highlight particulars about GS and not the investment banking industry.
He’s trying to emphasize that GS has changed during his time there, where they used their smart/superior personel to be better traders/bankers/managers/analysts rather then better at squeezing every bit from their existing clients. In short, beating the competition rather than beating down their own customer base.
I get the impression that he really feels that people recruited into GS are the best, but that they are taking more from their clients than they should compared to other banks due to their reputation. I’m imagining something like a hedge fund that outperforms peers by a little bit, but charges an extra high fee that makes client returns below average (as opposed to splitting the outperformance).
That’s what I THINK he’s trying to say… who knows, he could be an idiot or outright lying, but that’s the interpretation I got. Also note that he’s no Michael Lewis when it comes to writing quality, so his story doesn’t seem as magical as others in the past.
MCalamari,
Listen, nobody is disputing what he says with regard to Goldman and the rest of the financial services industry issue frequently frontrunning their clients or trying to make tons of money off of suckers. Hell, anyone with any brains understands that this is a rigged casino. Why do you think that very few people want to own Goldman Sachs stock but just about everyone wants to work there. It’s a license to steal money just being an employee. Anyone who is a client of Goldman Sachs is already well aware of this. They discount it into any decision they make, I’m positive.
My point is that this stupid letter isn’t about Goldman, but about him.
I want a vicious take down piece on the specifics of the Vampire Squid. One that names names. Gives details. I want a wikileaks treasure trove showing me precisely how Blankfein and Goldman Alums are specifically shoving their razorwired penises into the average citizen of planet earth through complete corporate control of Governments world wide.
This aint it. This is the public confession of someone who is very taken with himself. It’s a Type-A personality finance nerd masturbating publicly and being indulged by the NY Times just because they hate Goldman.
ChickenTikka, you should be paid to write. Your AF comments are better than 90% of published articles. Well, of course, journalists are paid very little. Maybe that’s why…
maybe he was doing this to impress a girl…
It’s a Type-A personality finance nerd masturbating publicly and being indulged by the NY Times just because they hate Goldman.
Well said.
there are less expensive ways to impress a girl. Must have been some extremely HCB @ Goldman.
Thanks. One of my majors was English (the other one was even more useless). I got into all this investment bullshit purely by mistake. All I ever wanted to do was travel around the world chasing various types of strange ass and maybe read some 19th century literature des temps en temps.
At the time that I embarked on my quest I realized I needed money to fund it. At the same time as I began my quest, rather serendipitously, Hedge Funds started to invest in strange countries, where I was already chasing strange ass, but needed a white guy from a New England University that they could trust. Supply met demand and the rest is keynesian history.
I have very little interest in finance or the clubhouses that make it up. It is only my love for strange ass and investing money in countries with strange ass that gets me up in the morning. If I could be paid to write this to you all then I would. But being a writer would greatly impede my ability to chase strange ass I would have to work very hard just to survive. So, I found alternative investments which seldomly transact and my performance numbers are subject to smoothing and modeling biases that almost always make them positive. Maybe we’ll know in 15 to 25 years if I was any good. Actually, my property in India doubled in value between 2007 and 2009 but that’s just what the people who study the market tell me. No marking to market in Real Estate.
My proudest moment, you ask? Two classy babes, no doubt paid for by the broker, in my hotel room in Bali after, unbeknownst to them, I’d already made the investment decision not to invest. As one fellates me while the other performs a sexual act named after a non-fuel efficient vehicle, I stare out the window and onto the moonlit beach and shout, “I am the master of the Universe!”* Oh, but I digress, these thoughts were intended for my upcoming NY Times Op-Ed.
*I was not a CFA Candidate at the time of said mastering of the universe
+1
English Lit FTW
For such a useless major, it’s been surprisingly useful on Wall Street. I wouldn’t trade it for economics or finance, and it’s definitely been more useful to me than the CFA program.
Good writing is useful.
Hahahahahahahaahahaa
Given Tikka’s follow-up post (not the ranty one, the one where he used his undergrad to detail the Bali event), I now support whatever position he takes on Greg Smith and foreign real estate.
i like this tikka guy…can you post some of your most important experiences regarding HCBs here…good, bad, wierd, nasty, dirty, perverted…even…unclassy…
I got side tracked and missed the best part of the post on my first reading. “Non-fuel efficient vehicle” killed me.
I’ll need to borrow this line.
I didn’t want to beat on this topic some more, but look at this fucking photo… Stanford t-shirt with blazer? What a douche bag. Greg Smith, fuck… yoouuuu…
http://dealbreaker.com/2012/03/opening-bell-03-15-12/greg-smith/
I don’t have a problem with this guy…but he looks like a nerd…
Seriously, I’ve never seen anyone in Palo Alto without a polo shirt with an alligator on it. What a slob. Wearing a t-shirt with a blazer was cool if you were a 20 year old celebrity in 2006…I don’t think GS (Greg Smith, not Goldman Sachs) pulls it off.