Why Greg Smith is leaving Goldman Sachs

[Pauly]

If you didn't see this on the NYT op-ed page today, check it out. Good stuff.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/14/op...man-sachs.html

[B-Fly]

I guess I'm glad he wrote it, but at the same time, I'm not sure I buy the idea that Goldman or any of these other massive Wall Street Investment Banks (or the folks who choose to work there) were ever in this game out of some noble and principled interest in "client service". Everybody who chooses to work at an investment bank is doing so for one reason and one reason only -- self-enrichment. It's self-delusional for any of them to tell themselves otherwise. So when you've got a massive organization comprised entirely of people who are there for self-enrichment, what do you think the corporate culture is going to be?

[Midnight Otter]

I guess I'm glad he wrote it, but at the same time, I'm not sure I buy the idea that Goldman or any of these other massive Wall Street Investment Banks (or the folks who choose to work there) were ever in this game out of some noble and principled interest in "client service". Everybody who chooses to work at an investment bank is doing so for one reason and one reason only -- self-enrichment. It's self-delusional for any of them to tell themselves otherwise. So when you've got a massive organization comprised entirely of people who are there for self-enrichment, what do you think the corporate culture is going to be?

They all get together and sing Kumbaya every hour on the hour?

[schlesinj]

I do not recall Goldman being a 501c3?

[B-Fly]

I do not recall Goldman being a 501c3?

Neither is a doctor's office, yet I have a bit more faith in my doctor being driven by something other than profit motive when he's advising me. I don't have that same level of faith with respect to the "client service" of investment banks, primarily because the investment banking profession strikes me as one that has no real draw beyond wealth-maximization. While wealth may have been a factor that led a doctor to his choice of career, I think that medicine, just to take that example, also has an altruistic draw for its practitioners in a way that I don't see for investment banking.

[Midnight Otter]

Neither is a doctor's office, yet I have a bit more faith in my doctor being driven by something other than profit motive when he's advising me. I don't have that same level of faith with respect to the "client service" of investment banks, primarily because the investment banking profession strikes me as one that has no real draw beyond wealth-maximization. While wealth may have been a factor that led a doctor to his choice of career, I think that medicine, just to take that example, also has an altruistic draw for its practitioners in a way that I don't see for investment banking.

I didn't think you lawyers trusted anybody.

[chancellor]

Neither is a doctor's office, yet I have a bit more faith in my doctor being driven by something other than profit motive when he's advising me. I don't have that same level of faith with respect to the "client service" of investment banks, primarily because the investment banking profession strikes me as one that has no real draw beyond wealth-maximization. While wealth may have been a factor that led a doctor to his choice of career, I think that medicine, just to take that example, also has an altruistic draw for its practitioners in a way that I don't see for investment banking.

I hear what you're saying, but it's a poor long-term business model to work in a manner that conflicts with your clients. Much like lawyers (or other professions that work on "billability"), I fully expect there's those who are out for short term benefits and maximum personal wealth gain. And others who are out for long term benefits and very good personal wealth gain.

[B-Fly]

I hear what you're saying, but it's a poor long-term business model to work in a manner that conflicts with your clients. Much like lawyers (or other professions that work on "billability"), I fully expect there's those who are out for short term benefits and maximum personal wealth gain. And others who are out for long term benefits and very good personal wealth gain.

Except its different to the extent that the investment banks are essentially competing with their own clients, because those banks stand to make more money off of their own investments than they do off of their billable fees. So the profit-making incentive would lead the investment banks to buy the best assets for their own portfolios and to pawn off the less desirable toxic or declining assets to whomever they can convince to take them. It's essentially the same as what we've all seen in fantasy baseball when a competing owner tries to "advise you" about a great sleeper.

[schlesinj]

I am of the opinion that in every area of the work force there are "pigs". Whether it is the stores who raise prices of umbrellas when it rains to investment bankers.

[Steve]

I am of the opinion that in every area of the work force there are "pigs". Whether it is the stores who raise prices of umbrellas when it rains to investment bankers.

Why would you raise umbrella prices to investment bankers when it rains?

[schlesinj]

Why would you raise umbrella prices to investment bankers when it rains?

I see what I did there.

[Judge Jude]

I hate myself, of course, for chuckling at any of these fake ones:

http://www.slate.com/articles/business/low_concept/2012/03/why_i_am_leaving_goldman_sachs_more_resignation_letters_from_disillusioned_employees_.html

examples:

When I look at the McRib, I realize that it’s no longer about serving the highest-quality ambiguously sourced, rib-shaped meat product. How many “limited-time offers” can we make before we lose the trust of our loyal patrons?
—Steve Parsons, “Why I Am Leaving McDonald’s,” Wall Street Journal, March 23, 2012

When I started here, there was an entire refrigerator stocked with coconut water. Now, that fridge holds nothing but agave juice. I don't care for it.
—Bob Randolph, “Why I'm Leaving Google,” San Francisco Chronicle, March 22, 2012

I got in this business to spread my love of marine life. Now I see the whales are just in it for the chum and the audience is all wet.
—Melody Stevens, “Why I Am Leaving Sea World,” USA Today, April 3, 2012

[B-Fly]

Bump for senorsheep, per the other thread. I was talking about the big Wall Street investment banks, not the entirety of the finance profession, but yes, I did make a pretty sweeping generalization about investment bankers. My experience in NYC and at Columbia with folks who choose to make their careers in the large investment banking firms is that pretty much every last one of them will tell you honestly that they chose the job for the money, or the excitement and the money. It's a very different answer than you tend to get from, say, financial planners or bank branch employees who work with regular folks managing their savings and investments with an eye toward retirement.