It is not often that you run into a company that has been around since 1869. This company has former officers that run government and have the president's attention. This company has tirelessly given money to causes as diverse as climate change to developing female leaders.
So why on earth, I ask you, would Goldman Sachs wad up its store of goodwill, built up over generations on the backs of its founders, and flush it down the toilet?
Goldman Sachs is planning to pay its employees HUGE bonuses, just weeks after saying it will repay the government its stimulus loan. This would technically free the firm from the limitations set by the government on bonuses. But why, at this time when the country is experiencing the worst recession in a quarter of a century, would Goldman snub its nose at the world and choose to be the poster child for Wall Street excess?
There are even conspiracy theorists out there who take it one step further. Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone Magazine wrote a scathing article just this month about Goldman's role in all of the major financial bubbles of the last few decades (Internet, housing and commodities) and focuses on Goldman's role in these debacles. I love Matt's quote in this video: "Basically, Goldman has found a way to sell crap, slap a Triple A rating on it, and sell it to a bunch of big institutional investors."
There is a time in every company that management has to sit down and intropectively decide what it wants its company's image to be. Goldman Sachs, your time is now. I hope you straighten up and fly right.
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