Published by , November 9th 2009 at 2:10 pm
Goldman Sachs chief: “I’m just a banker doing God’s work”
The chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein, claims he is doing “God’s work”.
In an interview with The Sunday Times yesterday he said:
“We’re very important. We help companies to grow by helping them to raise capital. Companies that grow create wealth. This, in turn, allows people to have jobs that create more growth and more wealth. It’s a virtuous cycle.
“We have a social purpose.
“If the financial system goes down, our business is going down and, trust me, yours and everyone else’s is going down, too. The financial system led us into the crisis and it will lead us out.”
When asked about public anger at the $12 trillion the US Government has pumped into banks and the economy, only to see bankers making even more money, he added:
“Everybody should be, frankly, happy.”
Mr Blankfein’s attitude, and belief that banks have a “social purpose”, is in sharp contrast to the mood in the City, where Adair Turner, chair of the Financial Services Authority, described some financial activities as “socially useless”.
In his Mansion House speech in September he said:
“I do not apologise for being correctly quoted as saying that while the financial services industry performs many economically vital functions, and will continue to play a large and important role in London’s economy, some financial activities which proliferated over the last ten years were ‘socially useless’, and some parts of the system were swollen beyond their optimal size.”
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RT @leftfootfwd: Goldman Sachs chief: “I’m just a banker doing God’s work”: http://is.gd/4QVeJ <— Extraordinary remarks!!
what sort of god is claiming to work for? RT @leftfootfwd Goldman Sachs chief: “I’m just a banker doing God’s work”: http://is.gd/4QVeJ
[...] CEO Lloyd Blankfein is quoted as saying. He had earlier courted controversy by saying he was a “just a banker doing God’s work”. In addition to the apology, they have pledged $500 million over five years to help 10,000 US [...]