Around the Net

Blankfein Only The Face Of Wall Street's Failure To Communicate

Two weeks after Goldman Sachs was sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission in April, chairman and CEO Lloyd Blankfein appeared on "Charlie Rose" to make a case that the brokerage was a 21st-century version of the George Bailey character in "It's a Wonderful Life." It was part of a "multi-stop charm offensive designed to blunt SEC allegations," Richard Morgan writes.

But likening Goldman's plight to that of James Stewart's well-meaning, good natured, small town hero is "disingenuous at best, duplicitous at worst," Morgan writes. "It's also a demonstration of the enormous disconnect between Wall Street and Main Street." If nothing else, the failure to communicate has united public relations and financial services professionals in agreeing that the perceived breech between financiers and common folk is wider than ever.

It's not just Goldman. "As big banks have grown more complex, more global, more transactional and enormously larger, their communication outreach programs have retreated," Morgan reports. And, to make matters worse, all this disconnection gives the folks in Washington ample opportunity to engage in "pitchfork politics." There's lot's more to ponder within the story -- as there always is in a Morgan analysis.

advertisement

advertisement

"Marketplace," meanwhile, is running a word map that some might consider rather telling. Turns out that the "most frequently mentioned word in Goldman Sachs's four-page code of ethics is not 'ethics' or 'morality' or 'honesty' or 'integrity.' It is in fact: 'firm.'"

Read the whole story at The Deal, Marketplace »

Next story loading loading..