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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsLloyd Blankfein Is Now a Billionaire
by Michael J MoorePamela Roux - July 17, 2015 2:00 AM EDT
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. made hundreds of partners rich when it went public in 1999. Its performance since then has turned Lloyd Blankfein into a billionaire.
The chief executive officer of the Wall Street bank for the past nine years, Blankfein has seen his net worth surge to about $1.1 billion as the firms shares quadrupled since the initial public offering, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. As the largest individual owner of Goldman Sachs stock, he has a stake in the company worth almost $500 million. Real estate and an investment portfolio seeded by cash bonuses and distributions from the banks private-equity funds add more than $600 million.
For Blankfein, the son of a New York postal worker, the accumulation of wealth has been dramatic. Hes one of the few current leaders of a big global bank who reached a senior-executive rank before his firm went public. That wont happen again anytime soon, as Goldman Sachs was the last major Wall Street firm to end its private partnership.
It will be a rare thing, said Alan Johnson, managing director of compensation-consulting firm Johnson Associates. Most people wont have as long of a career at a high level, and its certainly unusual to keep as much of that stock that youve been granted. And then, of course, the firm you work for has to be really successful....
Full article:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-17/blankfein-becomes-billionaire-riding-goldman-s-shares-to-riches
Scuba
(53,475 posts)think
(11,641 posts)Last edited Fri Jul 17, 2015, 01:24 PM - Edit history (1)
Update: October 21, 2012, Former Goldman VP Greg Smith was interviewed on 60 Minutes about why he left Goldman seven months ago.
For more than two years, Goldman Sachs reputation has been under fire for its alleged role in the financial crisis. August 9, 2012, the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) announced it wont prosecute Goldman Sachs.
Goldman Sachs spokesman said We are pleased that this matter is behind us.
Snip~
In response to the DOJs announcement, U. S. Senator Carl Levin, one of the authors of the bipartisan report, said in a statement: Whether the decision by the Department of Justice is the product of weak laws or weak enforcement, Goldman Sachs actions were deceptive and immoral.
Levin said the Senate Subcommittees investigation of the financial crisis revealed wrong doing and failures among mortgage lenders, banking regulators, credit rating agencies and investment banks....
Full article:
https://theweekinethics.wordpress.com/2012/08/13/the-week-in-ethics-goldman-sachs-not-criminal-just-deceptive-and-immoral/
Additional sources:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-04-14/goldman-sachs-misled-congress-after-duping-clients-over-cdos-levin-says
http://www.forbes.com/sites/billsinger/2012/08/10/senator-levin-slams-department-of-justices-inaction-against-goldman-sachs/
http://www.c-span.org/video/?293196-3/investment-banks-financial-crisis-goldman-sachs-chair-ceo
RiverLover
(7,830 posts)Thanks think! Really great info I wish everyone knew.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)of predatory capitalism, especially in its final phases.
The only "ethic" in 90% of large businesses and all large banks is Profits Uber Alles, By Any Means Necessary, and That Means ANY MEANS.
PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)And to think there are still people that think the bailout was a bad idea.
(Warning: This post is not labeled as sarcasm for the humor impaired).
Octafish
(55,745 posts)Too bad about all the millions of homeless families, but, hey! That's Democracy.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)who kept everyone out of jail like a good consigliere should.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)He even picked up a sack of cash one of them dropped, smiled and handed it back to the guy in the mask. Then, Clousseau opened the door to the getaway car, because the crook's hands were so full. They might even have shaken hands good-bye. Immaculate manners, the mark of a true gentleman.
PowerToThePeople
(9,610 posts)WDIM
(1,662 posts)Wealth hoardering vulture capitalist.
Turbineguy
(37,387 posts)Sure.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)the people at heart. Rilly she does. I'm SERIES!
PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)"Blankfein has indicated he would be fine with either a Bush or Clinton presidency."
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/jeb-bush-goldman-sachs-2016-election-115672.html
MattBaggins
(7,905 posts)What is he some fucking mafia boss giving his OK. Fuck him and who he would be fine with.
LuvNewcastle
(16,862 posts)olddots
(10,237 posts)WillyT
(72,631 posts)& Rec !!!
Octafish
(55,745 posts)Dr. Black is the one to emulate if one is interested in actually draining the swamp, as opposed to just talking about draining the swamp:
Know your BFEE: Goldmine Sacked or The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One
RadiationTherapy
(5,818 posts)1,100 families dreaming of 1 million dollars; one family owning 1,100 million dollars.
Initech
(100,121 posts)hifiguy
(33,688 posts)A sane society would do to this pig what the Romanians did to Ceaucescu.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)Can we say that here? If so, I'm all for it.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)so it is the purest fantasy, like wishing for wings.
moondust
(20,019 posts)Another feather in the capitalist cap!
Who was it that said: "The success of any given economic system shall be judged by the number of billionaires it produces."
Somebody on CNBC? Fox Business? Bloomberg?
Nobody ever?
CTBlueboy
(154 posts)http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-03/jamie-dimon-becomes-billionaire-ushering-in-era-of-the-megabank-iagiwwl8
FlyByNight
(1,756 posts)A dynasty unto himself.
lapislzi
(5,762 posts)I'd be the first one in with a rusty grapefruit spoon. The torches and pitchforks could fall in behind me. Then I would live out my waning days in prison, eating soft foods, having done something useful with my life.
Just a fantasy. I would never advocate disemboweling an unethical monster with a rusty grapefruit spoon. That would be wrong. I'd at least clean the rust off first.
HughBeaumont
(24,461 posts). . . Lloyd Bankfiend could purchase a $40,000 automobile every three days and it would make not an iota of difference in his wealth?
That is without touching a DROP of his net worth, but the hypothetical 3% he makes on that net worth.
And now, it's worse.
Isn't Trapitalism amazing? If you're the trapper, that is . . . .
RiverLover
(7,830 posts)We are being played. I'm not against hard work, smarts & creativity reaping huge rewards, but not this kind of wealthy built on manipulating the system.
It'd be easier to be loyal to our party if our party leaders were.
Revolting, criminal greed.
Hydra
(14,459 posts)Or buying off the regulation apparatus.
The hard work, smarts and other framing are cute, but we have a different world now, where if we cooperated and shared, everyone could live like royalty. Instead, people like Lloyd and Jaime are well on their way to owning the world.
"God's work" indeed.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)unless we Feel The Bern:
Hydra
(14,459 posts)As the quote Steglitz kindly gave us sums it up-
Larry Summers: "What would Goldman Sachs think?"
The Clintons have been bought and paid for many times over in the last two decades. Hell, Obama appointed two characters that only asked "how high" when the banksters told them to jump. One to the DOJ and the other to Treasury. The Repukes have always been bought and paid for.
Ichingcarpenter
(36,988 posts)Sen. Bernie Sanders was reacting to Loyd Blankfein's comments about how we must cut our safety nets because we can't afford them in his words. This is coming from another wealthy CEO-type that has racked in hundreds of millions of dollars of his own while accepting big bailouts from the federal government.
Here's what he said to CBS:
An interview with Lloyd Blankfein is as rare as a look inside the Goldman Sachs money machine. He showed us one of seven trading floors at his Manhattan headquarters. Goldman is one of America's most successful investment banks. It had net earnings of $4.4 billion dollars last year. When we asked Blankfein how to reduce the federal budget deficit, he went straight for the subject politicians don't want to talk about.
BLANKFEIN: You're going to have to undoubtedly do something to lower people's expectations -- the entitlements and what people think that they're going to get, because it's not going to -- they're not going to get it.
PELLEY: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid?
BLANKFEIN: You can look at history of these things, and Social Security wasn't devised to be a system that supported you for a 30-year retirement after a 25-year career. ... So there will be things that, you know, the retirement age has to be changed, maybe some of the benefits have to be affected, maybe some of the inflation adjustments have to be revised. But in general, entitlements have to be slowed down and contained.
Here's how Bernie reacted:
Sanders: Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein came to Capitol Hill this week to call for cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. As Congress and the White House are negotiating a year-end deficit deal, Blankfein sought to lower peoples expectations about their retirement and health care. He spoke with all the sympathy for someone struggling to get by on $14,000-a-year retirement that youd expect from a Wall Street banker paid $16 million last year.
Think about the arrogance of these guys on Wall Street who were bailed out by the middle class of this country when their greed and recklessness nearly destroyed the financial system and now they come to Capitol Hill to lecture Congress and the American people about the need to cut programs for working families, Sen. Bernie Sanders said in a Senate floor speech.
http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/bernie-sanders-lloyd-blankfein-arroganc
also see this piece on Blankfein
Lloyd Blankfein's the Wrong............ Rolling Stone
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/blankfein-the-wrong-spokesman-for-gay-rights-20120214
HFRN
(1,469 posts)'Sorry, you almost made it, but that last dollar did you in - gotta draw the line on hoarding somewhere. Sorry'