Ex-Goldman Sachs Directeur 'Greg Smith' Op De Biechtstoel : Waarom Ik GS Verlaat.

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Goldman Sachs directeur Greg Smith geeft er de brui aan, hij verlaat het bedrijf.

Hij doet dit echter niet zonder een vernietigende verklaring af te leggen aangaande het reilen en zeilen binnen het rijk van GS.

De New York Times publiceerde zijn persoonlijk schrijven.

Greg Smith leidde de Londense tak van GS. Hij kan er niet langer blijven werken vanwege gewetensproblemen. Volgens hem leeft er binnen het bedrijf een uiterst toxische en destructieve cultuur. De onderneming is moreel bankroet...

Lees de publicatie van zijn opiniestuk en leer wie de heren Europese Technocraten zijn.

Dit is de 'spirit' die ook zijn weg heeft gevonden tot in de hoogste Europese topfuncties.

The New York Times - Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs p.1

The New York Times - Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs p.2

Op-Ed Contributor
Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs
By GREG SMITH
Published: March 14, 2012

TODAY is my last day at Goldman Sachs. After almost 12 years at the firm — first as a summer intern while at Stanford, then in New York for 10 years, and now in London — I believe I have worked here long enough to understand the trajectory of its culture, its people and its identity. And I can honestly say that the environment now is as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it.

To put the problem in the simplest terms, the interests of the client continue to be sidelined in the way the firm operates and thinks about making money. Goldman Sachs is one of the world’s largest and most important investment banks and it is too integral to global finance to continue to act this way. The firm has veered so far from the place I joined right out of college that I can no longer in good conscience say that I identify with what it stands for.

It might sound surprising to a skeptical public, but culture was always a vital part of Goldman Sachs’s success. It revolved around teamwork, integrity, a spirit of humility, and always doing right by our clients. The culture was the secret sauce that made this place great and allowed us to earn our clients’ trust for 143 years. It wasn’t just about making money; this alone will not sustain a firm for so long. It had something to do with pride and belief in the organization. I am sad to say that I look around today and see virtually no trace of the culture that made me love working for this firm for many years. I no longer have the pride, or the belief.

But this was not always the case. For more than a decade I recruited and mentored candidates through our grueling interview process. I was selected as one of 10 people (out of a firm of more than 30,000) to appear on our recruiting video, which is played on every college campus we visit around the world. In 2006 I managed the summer intern program in sales and trading in New York for the 80 college students who made the cut, out of the thousands who applied.

I knew it was time to leave when I realized I could no longer look students in the eye and tell them what a great place this was to work.

When the history books are written about Goldman Sachs, they may reflect that the current chief executive officer, Lloyd C. Blankfein, and the president, Gary D. Cohn, lost hold of the firm’s culture on their watch. I truly believe that this decline in the firm’s moral fiber represents the single most serious threat to its long-run survival.

Over the course of my career I have had the privilege of advising two of the largest hedge funds on the planet, five of the largest asset managers in the United States, and three of the most prominent sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East and Asia. My clients have a total asset base of more than a trillion dollars. I have always taken a lot of pride in advising my clients to do what I believe is right for them, even if it means less money for the firm. This view is becoming increasingly unpopular at Goldman Sachs. Another sign that it was time to leave.

How did we get here? The firm changed the way it thought about leadership. Leadership used to be about ideas, setting an example and doing the right thing. Today, if you make enough money for the firm (and are not currently an ax murderer) you will be promoted into a position of influence.

What are three quick ways to become a leader?
a) Execute on the firm’s “axes,” which is Goldman-speak for persuading your clients to invest in the stocks or other products that we are trying to get rid of because they are not seen as having a lot of potential profit.
b) “Hunt Elephants.” In English: get your clients — some of whom are sophisticated, and some of whom aren’t — to trade whatever will bring the biggest profit to Goldman. Call me old-fashioned, but I don’t like selling my clients a product that is wrong for them.
c) Find yourself sitting in a seat where your job is to trade any illiquid, opaque product with a three-letter acronym.

Today, many of these leaders display a Goldman Sachs culture quotient of exactly zero percent. I attend derivatives sales meetings where not one single minute is spent asking questions about how we can help clients. It’s purely about how we can make the most possible money off of them. If you were an alien from Mars and sat in on one of these meetings, you would believe that a client’s success or progress was not part of the thought process at all.

It makes me ill how callously people talk about ripping their clients off. Over the last 12 months I have seen five different managing directors refer to their own clients as “muppets,” sometimes over internal e-mail. Even after the S.E.C., Fabulous Fab, Abacus, God’s work, Carl Levin, Vampire Squids? No humility? I mean, come on. Integrity? It is eroding. I don’t know of any illegal behavior, but will people push the envelope and pitch lucrative and complicated products to clients even if they are not the simplest investments or the ones most directly aligned with the client’s goals? Absolutely. Every day, in fact.

It astounds me how little senior management gets a basic truth: If clients don’t trust you they will eventually stop doing business with you. It doesn’t matter how smart you are.

These days, the most common question I get from junior analysts about derivatives is, “How much money did we make off the client?” It bothers me every time I hear it, because it is a clear reflection of what they are observing from their leaders about the way they should behave. Now project 10 years into the future: You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that the junior analyst sitting quietly in the corner of the room hearing about “muppets,” “ripping eyeballs out” and “getting paid” doesn’t exactly turn into a model citizen.

When I was a first-year analyst I didn’t know where the bathroom was, or how to tie my shoelaces. I was taught to be concerned with learning the ropes, finding out what a derivative was, understanding finance, getting to know our clients and what motivated them, learning how they defined success and what we could do to help them get there.

My proudest moments in life — getting a full scholarship to go from South Africa to Stanford University, being selected as a Rhodes Scholar national finalist, winning a bronze medal for table tennis at the Maccabiah Games in Israel, known as the Jewish Olympics — have all come through hard work, with no shortcuts. Goldman Sachs today has become too much about shortcuts and not enough about achievement. It just doesn’t feel right to me anymore.

I hope this can be a wake-up call to the board of directors. Make the client the focal point of your business again. Without clients you will not make money. In fact, you will not exist. Weed out the morally bankrupt people, no matter how much money they make for the firm. And get the culture right again, so people want to work here for the right reasons. People who care only about making money will not sustain this firm — or the trust of its clients — for very much longer.

Gary Cohn with (alleged) clients

Story of the Day: Goldman Sachs hates its clients, calls them 'muppets'

[D'ARTOIS]

Iemand die inziet dat de Amerikaanse finaciele en politikeke samenleving - en in het bijzonder die van de Washington controlerende multi' s - een tot in de kern verotte appel is.

[Kasumi]

Grootschalige joodse financiele terreur.

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Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door Kasumi

Grootschalige joodse financiele terreur.

Hoezo ?

[straddle]

Hoi ZB,

ik had er vannacht hier ook al melding van gemaakt :

http://forum.politics.be/showpost.ph...&postcount=171


Ik probeer zoveel mogelijk ''Goldman Sachs nieuwtjes'' in reeds bestaande draden over GS te steken, dat toont dan beter een ''rode draad'' aan (dit geheel ter zijde).

.

[straddle]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door Kasumi

Grootschalige joodse financiele terreur.

Maar ze doen toch het ''Werk van God'' ? !


Herinner je je die statement van Blankfein nog?


.

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Natuurlijk laat een antwoord van GS niet lang op zich wachten.

Actie-Reactie

ZERO HEDGE - Goldman Responds To Greg Smith, Darth Vader Is Leaving The Empire, And More...
Because every former employee confession has an equal and opposite reaction from "toxic and destructive" firms. And what a better way to test the PR disaster damage control skills of the firm's new global head of corporate communications: former Treasury aide and Geithner lackey Jake Siewert. In other news, Goldman is now promptly adding perpetual non-disparagement clauses to all employee contracts. Retroactively, if possible.

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Een parodie in de msm...

Why I am leaving the Empire, by Darth Vader

TODAY is my last day at the Empire.


'I no longer have the pride, or the belief'

After almost 12 years, first as a summer intern, then in the Death Star and now in London, I believe I have worked here long enough to understand the trajectory of its culture, its people and its massive, genocidal space machines. And I can honestly say that the environment now is as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it.

To put the problem in the simplest terms, throttling people with your mind continues to be sidelined in the way the firm operates and thinks about making people dead.

The Empire is one of the galaxy's largest and most important oppressive regimes and it is too integral to galactic murder to continue to act this way. The firm has veered so far from the place I joined right out of Yoda College that I can no longer in good conscience point menacingly and say that I identify with what it stands for.

...

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Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door straddle

Maar ze doen toch het ''Werk van God'' ? !


Herinner je je die statement van Blankfein nog?


.

A shitty deal !

Video :Goldman Sachs Doing Gods Work
Amy Goodman, Democracy Now, interviews Robert Scheer (editor at Truthdig.com, author, and long time business journalist) who has been closely following the impact and causes of the economic meltdown. His latest column is called Obama; Where Is the Community Organizer We Elected? Mr Sheer gives credit to a few exceptional individuals, such as Ron Paul, for speaking truth to all the corruption and calling for a full disclosure of the Federal Reserve's activities.

Video : Lloyd Blankfein God's Work - Goldman Sachs CEO Is Doing God's Work!

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Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door straddle

Hoi ZB,

ik had er vannacht hier ook al melding van gemaakt :

http://forum.politics.be/showpost.ph...&postcount=171


Ik probeer zoveel mogelijk ''Goldman Sachs nieuwtjes'' in reeds bestaande draden over GS te steken, dat toont dan beter een ''rode draad'' aan (dit geheel ter zijde).

.

OK @straddle,

Gelezen. Ik ging het plaatsen in de Euro crisis draad, maar vond het belangrijk genoeg om het een eigen draad te geven. Meerdere referenties naar dit weetje kunnen alvast geen kwaad.

Keep on top of it.

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'Zakenbank Goldman Sachs minacht klant en heeft giftige cultuur'

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Meer over GS...

Global Reasearch - Goldman Sachs: Making Money by Stealing It

Money power in private hands and democracy can't co-exist. Wall Street crooks transformed America into an unprecedented money making racket.


Goldman symbolizes master of the universe of financial manipulation (Reuters April 16, 2011) It's been involved in nearly all financial scandals since the 19th century.

...

"Goldman designed a rigged trifecta. It turned a massive loss into a material profit by selling deeply underwater, toxic CDOs it owned. It helped make John Paulson (CEO of a huge hedge fund that Goldman would love to have as an ally) a massive profit - in a 'profession' where reciprocal favors are key, and blew up its customers that purchased the CDOs."
...

Goldman Sachs Charged With Fraud: Who is Goldman Sachs? Part I