Many are still talking about the Op-Ed piece by Greg Smith. We especially love this write up from John Cassidy, as he reminds Goldman to do what we’ve been saying for years:
One popular theory, which I heard the Times columnist Joe Nocera expounding on the radio yesterday, is that it all goes back to 1999, when the firm issued stock to the public. As an old-school Wall Street partnership, this story goes, Goldman valued its reputation too highly to get involved in some of the shenanigans that it has gotten mixed up in recently, and it could also afford to take the long view. Once it became a public company, however, it came under pressure to raise its earnings every quarter. And this encouraged it to put short-term profits before anything else, including the best interests of its clients.
