Blankfein: Trust me. I'm doing God's work here.
This Tuesday Goldman Sachs executives will go before the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. A string of indicting emails have been revealed by the S.E.C. and the Subcommittee charging that Goldman fraudulently intended to mislead investors on risks (bets) related to mortgage-backed securities. The S.E.C. is charging that Goldman created and marketed securities that were deliberately designed to fail. Moreover, Goldman was so clever that they knew how to profit off those failures as the American people lost their homes. Economist Paul Krugman likens it to looting, pure and simple.
Last November, Lloyd Blankfein, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, claimed that Goldman Sachs was “doing God’s work”. A month before that Goldman Sachs executive Brian Griffiths said that Jesus would understand Goldman’s work: “The injunction of Jesus to love others as ourselves is a recognition of self-interest. . . . We have to tolerate the inequality as a way to achieving greater prosperity and opportunity for all.”
Essentially, much of Wall Street practice has become a game in which a few people are opulently paid to mislead and exploit consumers and investors. What’s more, its a game that rewards so well that those profiting will say anything to stay in the boon. What’s next, a testimony about a visit from Gabriel?
What we can hope for the most is a road to Damascus experience. If Saul could become Paul, maybe Goldman in a miraculous act of contrition can fall to its knees and beg for forgiveness. Probably like you, I’m not overly-convinced a conversion experience is coming, but maybe Tuesday will be another chance to shine some more light on these egregious practices–maybe not blinding, but light nonetheless.
