Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Goldman Chief (With A Straight Face) Says Turmoil Could Be A Boon

FT reports:

The current turmoil in the capital markets is testing Goldman Sachs, but it is also creating historical opportunities for growth, says the bank’s chief executive, Lloyd Blankfein.

Speaking at Merrill Lynch’s annual banking and financial services conference, Mr Blankfein conceded that his firm was not immune from the current downdraft in the markets....

[But] “The most important opportunities in Goldman Sachs’ history came in times of stress,” he said. “Our culture has given us the wherewithal to embrace change.”

Embrace change? Especially when your man, Paulson, is at the Treasury making the change. FT again:

In the past 12 months, as the competitive landscape on Wall Street changed, Mr Blankfein said Goldman Sachs had gained more than 100 new clients that had either been involved in billion-dollar deals or raised more than $500m in funds.


No kidding? Paulson blows away Goldman's competitors, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, and Goldman picks up 100 new clients. Helluva a plan.

1 comment:

  1. Yes the market has “tested” Goldman Sachs and found that it had broken every rule to good investing and it should have gone into bankruptcy months ago. Unfortunately Goldman Sachs has friends in government and has been put on welfare at the tune of tens of billions of dollars so far.

    There was no “market failure”, the markets have shown that badly run companies who leveraged themselves deeply in debt to buy and sell overpriced shoddy products are bad investments over the long term. The only good investment that these failed companies made was in buying up a majority of the politicians and media so they could get bailed out.

    DJ

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