So, It Really Is About the Money
The New York Times today discovered that Goldman Sachs is in the business of making money. And that the trader culture is at war with the banker culture. Both are stories as old as money itself. Some years the traders rule and others the bankers do. Wall Street’s always been that way. The paradigm of the investment banker as a counselor to capitalism is a quaint notion but not an “ethos” as the Times tried to frame it. There were legendary counselors at the banks over the decades. But more of them were on the commercial banking side. At places like heritage J.P. Morgan. Those days are long gone.
What’s more interesting is why Goldman’s PR people can’t think their way through these rough reputational waters with a little more success.
