Lloyd Blankfein Misses the Mark
When Goldman Sachs' chief mouthpiece told us a couple of weeks ago that no one at the bank would be permitted to celebrate the firm's blockbuster second quarter, he wasn't kidding. The Post reports today that Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein, has instructed all employees of the firm "to avoid making big-ticket, high-profile purchases."
The order seems to make sense. Given the barrage of bad press the firm has faced in recent weeks, Blankfein is hoping Goldman execs don't further embarrass the firm by picking up newly-discounted mansions in the Hamptons—especially ones owned by desperate ex-employees of bankrupt investment banks—or by, say, buying a bright red Ferrari and then circling around Citigroup's headquarters a couple of dozen times. "This is a sensitive time for us and [Blankfein] wants to make sure that we're not being seen living high on the hog," explains one Goldman exec. (Strangely omitted from Blankfein's directive: That it might also be a good idea if Goldman employees didn't get busted for soliciting underage girls online.)
But is this really the message Blankfein should be sending to employees? If Goldman bankers are the only ones making money these days and they're not allowed to spend the cash, who is going to lift New York out of the recession we're in? Who's going to keep high-end real estate brokers busy? Who is going to keep the fancy stores on Fifth Avenue in business? (Besides tourists from China, of course.)
We're thinking that Blankfein's directive was precisely the opposite of what he should have recommended. Instead of telling employees not to shop, he should have insisted that Goldman execs blow every last cent of their bonuses on frivolous purchases, thereby pumping billions of dollars into the local economy. Guess we'll have to hope that nature prevails, and the instinctual drive to spend that all bankers possess, wins in the end.
