Saturday, May 1, 2010

If there was EVER a reason to NOT remain civil

The "culture" of Goldman Sachs, and that certainly of it's senior executive, you know the "doing God's work" culture.  "The financial system failed America."  Oh Dear Lord, what is the financial system made up of?  People.  Goldman Sachs people.  People that (should) have the capacity to make individual decisions based on ethics, values, spirit, morals.  The moral compass has swung into a region that I am very uncomfortable with.  George Soros and The Open Society lectures does much to explain some of these complexities to me.  Modern capitalism is in conflict with certain moral and ethical values.  But ONLY when the PEOPLE make decisions that are such.  It is an individual choice - NO MATTER WHAT!  All in the name of growth.  All in the name of doing good.  It just doesn't matter.  It does not make sense to me. I am not surprised that Dear Lord can sit there in his peaceful comfortable frame of mind because he "is" the culture.  Of course he talks with confidence and surety.  He lives the culture and it is his "world".  That and the other 400 or so partners of GS and many others in the "financial system" that failed America (and the world) is troublesome.  It is the epitomy of "doing" and not "being" - following the supposedly ubiquitous dream of material ownership.  The treadmill.  The expectations.  The entitlement.  Abhorring.  It's Become Simply Abhorring.  Until this way of "doing" changes back to "being", our modern society will have a rough ride.  I had a long conversation with a colleague yesterday - the jist of it being - the model of investment banking that reaped, and continues to reap billions - is in it's final decline.  I do not believe it is sustainable.  As Zero Hedge puts it - all the false nobility in the world does not change the incredible hypocrisy of the institution as it stands now.  The reason why Goldman thought it was good to go public.  The reason Lord is doing these public appearances.  Their reputation is done, done, and done.  And for me, so returns the idea of a log cabin and a mountain side.
Lloyd Blankfein, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Goldman Sachs
with Lloyd Blankfein
in 
Current AffairsBusiness
on Friday, April 30, 2010
*****

Lloyd Blankfein, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Goldman Sachs
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