Goldman Sachs is Flying High and Not At All "Disgruntled"

The article below summarizes other reactions to Greg Smith's letter of resignation in the NY Times.  According to Senator Levin, the Justice Department is doing a review of Wall Street.  However, the Obama administration so far has decided not to prosecute any executives on Wall Street for their financial malfeasance but rather to reach accommodation and agreement with some money thrown about.  We will be waiting until hell freezes over before Senator Jack Reed's suggestion that clients of Goldman Sachs will demand changes to the culture on Wall Street.

As for Goldman Sachs's being concerned about the reaction of members of the House or Senate banking committees, they have already sewn up that little problem and have a civil suit for fraud to prove it.  Sad, sad, sad.

Goldman Missive Shows Need for Volcker Rule, Democrats Say

By Phil Mattingly and James Rowley - San Francisco Chronicle

March 16 (Bloomberg) -- The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. employee who criticized the company's culture in a newspaper column bolsters the case for Wall Street restrictions like the Volcker rule, congressional Democrats said.

While the March 14 New York Times opinion piece by former executive director Greg Smith drew no requests for hearings or investigations, lawmakers including Senators Carl Levin of Michigan and Jeff Merkley said the article showed why the U.S. needs tighter restrictions on Wall Street practices. The two Democrats authored the Volcker rule's ban on proprietary trading and conflicts of interest in the Dodd-Frank Act.

Former Goldman Sachs executive director Greg Smith's New York Times opinion column published March 14 drew no requests for hearings or deeper investigations. Lawmakers including Senators Carl Levin of Michigan and Jeff Merkley of Oregon, the Democrats who authored the Volcker rule's ban on proprietary trading and conflicts of interest in the Dodd-Frank Act said the piece strengthened the case for restrictions on Wall Street trading.

Congress can't "legislate the culture but I think the heart of this goes to why we needed the Merkley-Levin amendment," Merkley, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, said in an interview.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill yesterday said the piece, which has ricocheted through Wall Street firms, has had less of an impact in Washington, where New York-based Goldman Sachs' business practices and Chief Executive Officer Lloyd C. Blankfein were the targets of congressional hearings in 2010.

Read the entire article here