This is a resignation letter!

[Aggie93]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/14/opinion/why-i-am-leaving-goldman-sachs.html


First paragraph

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.

[speeder]

I knew a guy who went to work for them right out of college, in about 1983 or '84. He was the biggest scumbag I knew at the time and I remember thinking, "what a scumbag way to get through life." Something about focusing your existence on making money, nothing else, always struck me as one of the least meaningful and rewarding ways to make it to the cemetery.

I've always thought of money as being a byproduct of work, either producing or creating something of value to society and reaping the financial reward. I've never given money much thought. In modern capitalism, most of the big money is made gambling/speculating/investing with other people's money. The RE boom, (and the junk bond boom before it), are perfect examples of money being made with absolutely nothing produced for society whatsoever except for more money. It's all gross to me. YMMV.

[tabs]

I hardly recognize the America I grew up in. All the noble Romans ....ahhh I mean Americans have either retired or are now dead.

This is the reason why the American "EXCEPTIONALISM" arguement falls upon my deaf ears..America is no longer the nation of 50 years ago. That is the basis of my pessimism about America. It is now run by Bottom Feeders, whose only interest is self interest.

[szyzygy]

And goldman structured the deals with greece allowing then to enter the eu
hank paulson the treasury secretary was their ceo. Isn't geitner a goldman sachs boy, too?

Goldman sachs craps on the rest of us while hiding behind the idea of capitalism. robbing us blind while acting like they're getting because they're smarter. Lol.

[sammyg2]

Why I am leaving the Empire, by Darth Vader
14-03-12
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.

For more than a decade I recruited and mentored candidates, some of whom were my secret children, through our gruelling interview process. In 2006 I managed the summer intern program in detecting strange disturbances in the Force for the 80 younglings who made the cut.

I knew it was time to leave when I realised I could no longer speak to these students inside their heads and tell them what a great place this was to work.

How did we get here? The Empire changed the way it thought about leadership. Leadership used to be about ideas, setting an example and killing your former mentor with a light sabre. Today, if you make enough money you will be promoted into a position of influence, even if you have a disturbing lack of faith.

What are three quick ways to become a leader? a) Execute on the firm's 'axes', which is Empire-speak for persuading your clients to invest in 'prime-quality' residential building plots on Alderaan that don't exist and have not existed since we blew it up. b) 'Hunt Elephants'. In English: get your clients - some of whom are sophisticated, and some of whom aren't - to tempt their friends to Cloud City and then betray them. c) Hand over rebel smugglers to an incredibly fat gangster.

When I was a first-year analyst I didn't know where the bathroom was, or how to tie my shoelaces telepathically. I was taught to be concerned with learning the ropes, finding out what a protocol droid was and putting my helmet on properly
so people could not see my badly damaged head.

My proudest moments in life - the pod race, being lured over to the Dark Side and winning a bronze medal for mind control ping-pong at the Midi-Chlorian Games - known as the Jedi Olympics - have all come through hard work, with no shortcuts.

The Empire today has become too much about shortcuts and not enough about remote strangulation. It just doesn’t feel right to me anymore.

I hope this can be a wake-up call. Make killing people in terrifying and unstoppable ways the focal point of your business again. Without it you will not exist. Weed out the morally bankrupt people, no matter how much non-existent Alderaan real estate they sell. And get the culture right again, so people want to make millions of voices cry out in terror before being suddenly silenced.

The Daily Mash - Why I am leaving the Empire, by Darth Vader

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by szyzygy

And goldman structured the deals with greece allowing then to enter the eu
hank paulson the treasury secretary was their ceo. Isn't geitner a goldman sachs boy, too?

Goldman sachs craps on the rest of us while hiding behind the idea of capitalism. robbing us blind while acting like they're getting because they're smarter. Lol.

Do you invest with GS? I don't.
Not sure how you can come to the conclusion that GS is robbing us all all even though we don't invest with them, unless you're talking about all our taxpayer money the politicians have loaned them.
If that's the case then you should have a beef with the politicians, not GS.

You talk about capitalism but fail to see the true beauty of it, if customers don't like GS they can walk away. They can go elsewhere if they're not happy with the service. If they're too stupid to monitor and manage their investments then they deserve to do poorly.

If another company steps up and has the honesty and morals to take care of their customers, they will grow and do very well and companies like GS will die an unpleasant death, just as it should be.
AS LONG AS WE CAN KEEP THE IDIOTS AT D.C. FROM INTERFERING WITH CAPITALISM!

[Rick Lee]

I hope that guy doesn't need another job because he won't be getting one after trashing his former employer in the NYT.

While his concerns may be perfectly true and legit., his letter sounded like he was whining and he made no attempt to tell us how he tried to correct things he saw wrong while he was in a position to do so. On the way out the door is not when you can really call yourself a whistle blower or agent of change.

[dan88911]

I wonder if he is walking away with a small fortune.
In which case he can now live he's life as he chooses.

[ckissick]

Originally Posted by speeder

I knew a guy who went to work for them right out of college, in about 1983 or '84. He was the biggest scumbag I knew at the time and I remember thinking, "what a scumbag way to get through life." Something about focusing your existence on making money, nothing else, always struck me as one of the least meaningful and rewarding ways to make it to the cemetery.

I've always thought of money as being a byproduct of work, either producing or creating something of value to society and reaping the financial reward. I've never given money much thought. In modern capitalism, most of the big money is made gambling/speculating/investing with other people's money. The RE boom, (and the junk bond boom before it), are perfect examples of money being made with absolutely nothing produced for society whatsoever except for more money. It's all gross to me. YMMV.

+100 I've always thought this way. I prefer to do something I enjoy and being part of creating something (I'm a geotechnical engineer). If I don't make a lot of money, who cares? I'm enjoying myself.

[TheMentat]

I find it interesting that these are changes that he observed over the past 10 years. I think its a reflection of the gradual change from a privately held company that is able to focus on long term growth, to a publicly traded outfit that is forced to answer to outside investors every quarter.

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by ckissick

+100 I've always thought this way. I prefer to do something I enjoy and being part of creating something (I'm a geotechnical engineer). If I don't make a lot of money, who cares? I'm enjoying myself.

His motives for going into that line of work have nothing at all to do with this. I'm certainly happy to let professionals manage my investments, since I have no idea what the hell to do with them and it's their job to make money for us both. Some folks really get a high on building a book of business and booking huge gains with it. I know I sure like having good months and getting paid for them. I would be miserable in a job where I knew I was getting the same paycheck every two weeks for as far as the eye could see and/or I could never make more than $XX in that job.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Originally Posted by speeder

I knew a guy who went to work for them right out of college, in about 1983 or '84. He was the biggest scumbag I knew at the time and I remember thinking, "what a scumbag way to get through life." Something about focusing your existence on making money, nothing else, always struck me as one of the least meaningful and rewarding ways to make it to the cemetery.

I've always thought of money as being a byproduct of work, either producing or creating something of value to society and reaping the financial reward. I've never given money much thought. In modern capitalism, most of the big money is made gambling/speculating/investing with other people's money. The RE boom, (and the junk bond boom before it), are perfect examples of money being made with absolutely nothing produced for society whatsoever except for more money. It's all gross to me. YMMV.

Proof that given enough time, even a monkey can write Shakespeare.

Well said and +1,000.

Do what you love. The money will (should) follow and be a by-product, not a product in and unto itself.

[RWebb]

Goldman is considered the top tranche of all the scumbags -- not necessarily the scummiest, but the most adept at whatever


thx for posting that hilarious Mash, sammy

[pegasus9]

it's like the Jerry Maguire mission statement to wall street.

Nice post Speeder.

[Aggie93]

Several years ago they were thought of as being the smartest guys on the street (maybe still the case). I think this reputation allowed them to take advantage of client and GS will see the negative ramifications over time. As someone above pointed out the change from private to public likely played a significant role in this. When the financial crisis hit, GS was one of the few firms (JP Morgan being maybe the only other) that others in the industry felt comfortable having counter-party risk with. Now that the financial system is starting to “normalize” (at least for now), GS will likely start losing market share as other firms are not on the brink of going out of business and can take back business.

I think there are a lot of people in the industry that don’t like dealing with GS, but feel they have to for various reasons. On the equity side, investment firms want the access to their IPO deal flow as one example.

[speeder]

Quote de speeder

I knew a guy who went to work for them right out of college, in about 1983 or '84. He was the biggest scumbag I knew at the time and I remember thinking, "what a scumbag way to get through life." Something about focusing your existence on making money, nothing else, always struck me as one of the least meaningful and rewarding ways to make it to the cemetery.



I've always thought of money as being a byproduct of work, either producing or creating something of value to society and reaping the financial reward. I've never given money much thought. In modern capitalism, most of the big money is made gambling/speculating/investing with other people's money. The RE boom, (and the junk bond boom before it), are perfect examples of money being made with absolutely nothing produced for society whatsoever except for more money. It's all gross to me. YMMV.

Proof that given enough time, even a monkey can write Shakespeare.



Well said and +1,000.



Do what you love. The money will (should) follow and be a by-product, not a product in and unto itself.

Gee, thanks. I think(?)

[Laneco]

I read the letter very seriously, until it got to the part about being a bronze medalist in table tennis at the Jewish Olympics...

I figured the letter was a farce after I read that.

angela

[speeder]

I didn't get that far, that's hilarious. "The Jewish Olympics"? Sounds like something from a Woody Allen movie.

[joelietz]

I didn't see anything about table tennis or Jewish Olympics in his resignation - I had to check it. I must be just as gullible as Goldman Sacks investors - Yoy!

__________________
buy gold or something

sell textbooks

[steve911]

Originally Posted by Laneco

I read the letter very seriously, until it got to the part about being a bronze medalist in table tennis at the Jewish Olympics...

I figured the letter was a farce after I read that.

angela

The full text is:

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

I'm assuming the NYT did their homework and checked the writer's credentials - I'm guessing that he was an Executive Director at Goldman, got his bonus and decided that he didn't need to work for them (or perhaps anyone else on the Street) anymore.