(Community Matters) Finally had a chance to read the article referred to in my earlier post, Rolling Stone’s How Goldman Sachs Runs Washington.
In Rolling Stone Issue 1082-83, Matt Taibbi takes on “the Wall Street Bubble Mafia” — investment bank Goldman Sachs. The piece has generated controversy, with Goldman Sachs firing back that Taibbi’s piece is “an hysterical compilation of conspiracy theories” and a spokesman adding, “We reject the assertion that we are inflators of bubbles and profiteers in busts, and we are painfully conscious of the importance in being a force for good.” Taibbi shot back: “Goldman has its alumni pushing its views from the pulpit of the U.S. Treasury, the NYSE, the World Bank, and numerous other important posts; it also has former players fronting major TV shows. They have the ear of the president if they want it.”
I’m biased in favor of Goldman Sachs. Some of my favorite former students are employed there. The firm has helped me immensely in my role as an investment committee chair/board member of more than one foundation. And, Taibbi’s writing is unprofessionally inciderary, selectively cites information, and states opinions/conjecture as facts. And, the story is still thought-provoking, more so on the chumminess of Wall Street, the Capitol, the White House & the Treasury – the appropriateness thereof – and deregulation.
Community Matters 