Goldman Sachs' CEO Blankfein: "We are Performing a Public Service"

Editors note: It never ceases to amaze me when I hear financial demolition artists like Lloyd Blankfein not only excusing their blatant bad behavior but patting themselves on the back for having saved the world from total financial destruction. They seem entirely unable to comprehend that they themselves created the panic of 2008 and worse, they continue the same behavior completely unchecked by the regulatory agencies that are meant to protect the public but instead bow to the Blankfeins of the financial world. Sick. - JDA

*barf* you have got to be kidding me.

WSJ:

Rightly or wrongly, a business occasionally is picked out by the fates to serve as the "unacceptable face of capitalism"—a term coined by the late British Prime Minister Edward Heath. Goldman Sachs, for a lot of people, is today's UFC.

The kinder jokes refer to the legendary investment firm as "Government Sachs," because of its connections to former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson (once a Goldman CEO) and other alumni who, as Washington officials, had hands in last year's financial crisis rescue operations. More rudely, a writer in Rolling Stone magazine likened Goldman to a "great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money."

...

He defends all that he considers exemplary about the firm: its disciplined risk taking; that 90% of its revenue and profits are generated in service to clients; that it's not just a giant hedge fund, as some critics say; that it plays a vital social role in matching those who have capital with those who need it; that its partners frequently retire young to devote themselves to philanthropy or public service.

Philanthropy! The nerve!

Anyway, read the rest of the article via Jr Deputy Accountant here. Try not to throw up.