| "...Blah blah blah dear god please don't leave us. We've even conducted an internal audit and 89% of us wanted to keep our job. See we're honest people." I'd be more inclined to trust their communications, but as he cites in several parts of the letter about leaked internal communications to support his feelings. Then we also have other people stepping forward saying "Yes I worked at xxxxx, and I saw, suspected, or participated in fleecing clients." To what degree is all arguable. Are these all well timed publicity stunts of a person trying to take clients away from a firm to start his own? That's one hell of a conspiracy theory, and probably pretty unlikely. Maybe he is. Who cares. Here's what I think. The last down turn shook Goldman to the core, and with it all the good will they had for their clients. Suddenly, the money train looked like it could derail permanently. When you got a lot of cash it's really easy to look like a genuine and generous person/firm. "Here there's enough cash to go around for all of us," they'll say. But, when that cash dries up. Generosity dries up too. And it's all too easy for people to turn into selfish, desperate people. Remember back during the crash when Carl Icahn was quoted saying he had friends that didn't know how they were going to live on $10 Million/year? That was the desperation setting in. Here's the thing though. S&P 500 closed the decade out flat. Contrast that with the 80's & 90's where it had multi-year straight growth. It was easy, and the money was easy. Now all that easy money ain't around. This drought is playing out all over the financial industry. Goldman ain't the only one behaving badly. |