$500 Million, and an Apology, From Goldman Sachs

Posted by Kendall Harmon

How much good will can an apology — and half a billion dollars — buy? Goldman Sachs is hoping it will be a lot.

After first staunchly defending its outsize profits and pay, and then bristling at calls for restraint in these tough economic times, Goldman is trying a new tack: It is apologizing for past mistakes that led to the financial crisis — and sharing at least some of its riches, The New York Times’s Graham Bowley writes.

A little more than a week after Goldman’s chairman and chief executive drew fire for saying the Wall Street giant was “doing God’s work,” the bank said Tuesday that it would spend $500 million — or about 3 percent of the $16.7 billion it has so far set aside to pay its employees this year — to help thousands of small businesses recover from the recession.

At the same time, the executive, Lloyd C. Blankfein, also showed a bit of humility, acknowledging at a conference in New York that Goldman had made mistakes, and that it was sorry. “We participated in things that were clearly wrong and have reason to regret,” he said. “We apologize.”

Read it all.

Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • Stock Market • The Banking System/Sector • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007--

6 Comments
Posted November 18, 2009 at 11:46 am [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]



1. Ad Orientem wrote:

Well, its a start.

November 18, 12:49 pm | [comment link]
2. Adam 12 wrote:

I thought the issue was that the big bonuses were depriving the stockholders of their due…

November 18, 2:18 pm | [comment link]
3. Chris wrote:

how much are they paying out in bonuses?  I believe they disclose that info in December, right before Christmas (in the hope no one is paying attention?).

November 18, 2:23 pm | [comment link]
4. Archer_of_the_Forest wrote:

As No. 1 said, I suppose it is a start, and certainly better than nothing. They have a long way to go ethically if they think buying off the public will get people off their case.

November 18, 3:48 pm | [comment link]
5. John Wilkins wrote:

It’s nice that the bankers are so generous to middle class people. 

But it’s a drop in the bucket. 

You know this joke?  There was selfish, no-good rich man who died and tried to get into heaven. But an angel reviews your life, then St. Peter decides if you can enter. To counter the angel’s negative review, the rich man argued that he had a history of charitable giving. He’d once tossed a nickel into a beggar’s cup, he pointed out. Plus, some years later, he had aided a poor woman by giving her a nickel. Then there was the time he put a nickel into the Salvation Army kettle.

Hearing all this, the angel turned to St. Peter and asked, “What in the world should we do with this man?” And St. Peter said, “Give him back his 15 cents, and tell him to go to hell!”

November 18, 8:58 pm | [comment link]
6. Will B wrote:

Well said #5.  I’m not sure it’s better than nothing, especially since GS has no intention of changing its tactics.  In fact there’s even greater insult currently since GS is one of the Wall Street firms that has “acquired” HINI flu vaccine for its employees while most places in the US are begging for it.  Hmmm..  Like the angel said to St Peter, “Give him back his 15 cents and tell him to go to hell”.

November 19, 1:00 pm | [comment link]
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