Buy Boycott This Book So, five years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the 2008 financial crash, former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is peddling a new forward, “Five Years Later,” to his 2011 book “On the Brink.” Ironically, at 38 pages, Mr. Paulson’s forward is a whopping 35(!) pages longer than his original TARP...Read More
High and Dry — and Light “Goldman Sachs is good at disaster preparedness ” too good.” –Jessica Pressler, “Goldman Has the Power“; New York magazine (11/3/2012). The word last week from some reliable sources — my sister, brother-in-law, and sister-in-law — was that, in the wake of Sandy’s storm surge, Manhattan was light above 30th...Read More
Selling Tainted, Addictive Products [Editor’s Note: Given the spate of financial corruption stories lately — did they ever really stop? — I thought I’d re-run a post from almost three(!) years ago making clear where my sympathies lie. Not that regular readers of this blog don’t already know.] What’s the difference between drug dealers and...Read More
Seceding Separating From Wall Street Texas Governor Rick Perry was a bust in the Republican Presidential primaries, but I credit him — sort of — for coming up with the best (and possibly last) solution to this country’s “Wall Street problem.” Namely, what to do about an out-of-control, parasitic, havoc-wreaking, corrupt (and corrupting) segment of the economy and...Read More
Ahhh, So THAT’s What They Are If you’re joining the story “already in progress,” as it were, here’s what you missed: Goldman Sachs exec Greg Smith — heretofore officially referred to by Goldman defenders as “‘junior’ Goldman Sachs executive Greg Smith,” “peon” Greg Smith, or the like — resigned in a blaze of glory on the Op-Ed...Read More
The Two Secrets to Job Satisfaction In my 10 years at Edina Realty, I’ve attended easily 1,000 company meetings — small, big, and everything in between. Never, absolutely never, in any of those meetings, did I ever hear fellow Edina agents refer to their clients as “Muppets,” “marks,” or “suckers.” At Goldman Sachs, that happens...Read More
