Goldman Sachs Executive Quits Over Company’s Moral Values
In the last few years, Americans have watched Wall Street’s unregulated greed destroy our country’s economy and the livelihoods of millions of families. Meanwhile the exorbitant wealth of the top 1% and economic inequality have continued to grow. It’s this culture of putting profits before people that is responsible for our broken system and sparked the moral outrage behind of the Occupy movement.
Today, in an op-ed in the New York Times, an executive at Goldman Sachs, one of the key culprits in Wall Street’s destruction, confirms this problem. Explaining why he’s decided to leave the firm, he reflects on the culture and value shifts he’s seen:
To put the problem in the simplest terms, the interests of the client continue to be sidelined in the way the firm operates and thinks about making money. Goldman Sachs is one of the world’s largest and most important investment banks and it is too integral to global finance to continue to act this way. The firm has veered so far from the place I joined right out of college that I can no longer in good conscience say that I identify with what it stands for.
It might sound surprising to a skeptical public, but culture was always a vital part of Goldman Sachs’s success. It revolved around teamwork, integrity, a spirit of humility, and always doing right by our clients. The culture was the secret sauce that made this place great and allowed us to earn our clients’ trust for 143 years. It wasn’t just about making money; this alone will not sustain a firm for so long. It had something to do with pride and belief in the organization. I am sad to say that I look around today and see virtually no trace of the culture that made me love working for this firm for many years. I no longer have the pride, or the belief.
Read the whole thing here.