"Too big to fail" financial giant Goldman Sachs recovering from the 2008 Meltdown but still doling out average $400 K annual paydays to its principal employees got a bit of a public relations black eye yesterday. Greg Smith, an executive director of the firm, published his resignation letter in the NY Times. Greg accused Goldman of losing its moral fiber, putting profits ahead of customer interest, and dismissing customers as "muppets".
That is an insult to Kermit, Miss Piggy, and Fozzie Bear, sir! Actual Muppets would not be so stupid as to purchase sub-prime mortgages from Goldman when Goldman covered itself by buying derivatives that profit when the mortgage packages inevitably fail. Actual Muppets would not accept government bail-out money to recover from a financial crisis that they caused. Living up to "The Rainbow Connection" requires a higher morality than complying with 2008 SEC Rules.
Greg Smith is in his early thirties. Take some advice from a 30 year veteran of the Corporate Wars, Greg. There is not now, nor has there ever been, morality in the Boardroom. Andrew Carnegie built all those libraries "to educate the common American" while he called in the National Guard to slaughter innocent strikers in the Homestead Massacre. Leland Stanford founded a wonderful university while building the transcontinental railroad on the backs of imported Chinese labor. As soon as the railroad was complete, he made sure that immigration laws forbade their families to join them here. Nowadays, corporations "declare bankruptcy" to get out from under employee pension and health care costs. Look up American Airlines this year and Bethlehem Steel twenty years ago.
If you seek morality in your workplace, Greg, Sesame Street is the place for you. Wall Street is not.
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