<blockquote>'The reviewer at the Economist was especially taken by the final sentence: “Deliciously paradoxically, the Nobel could end up diminishing, not fortifying, the qualifications-blindness and self-enslavement to equations-led dictums that, fifth-columnist style, pave the path for our sacrifice at the altar of misplaced concreteness.” '
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Guest Post: Satyajit Das on Financial Remakes, August 9, 2009
'...The standards have fallen so low that people can fool themselves about what is acceptable. And that is pronounced among Goldman employees, since the firm is a cult. Even though the industry is known for violating personal boundaries (a big cult habit) and keeping people in a closed community of the likeminded, Goldman does that one better, making a point of hiring people when they are young and malleable, having a strong sense of elitism and resultant belief that leaving the firm to work anywhere else would be an admission of personal failure, and making even more extreme demands than the norm. For instance, it is not uncommon for Goldman to ask staff members to reschedule weddings if they will conflict with a deal.'
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Quelle Surprise! Hank Paulson and Goldman CEO Talked to Each Other a Lot!, August 9, 2009
'Ms. Davis reiterated.. that Mr. Paulson’s involvement in the A.I.G. bailout was meant to forestall a collapse of the entire financial system and not to rescue any individual firms exposed to A.I.G., like Goldman. However, she said, federal officials were worried that both Goldman and Morgan Stanley were in danger themselves of failing later in the week and it was in that context that Mr. Paulson received a waiver.
“The waiver was in anticipation of a need to rescue Goldman Sachs,” Ms. Davis said, “not to bail out A.I.G.”
With all this talk of banks repaying TARP money, only a teeny portion of the subsidies they've received, too many people have lost sight of the real issue: these banks would have collapsed were it not for the generosity of the American taxpayer. And the real crime here, as Roger Ehrenberg, is that the Treasury Department, in a deal Paulson was deeply involved in, badly underpriced the TARP warrants. Do you think that was an accident? If so, I have a bridge I'd like to sell you.'
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Quelle Surprise! Hank Paulson and Goldman CEO Talked to Each Other a Lot!, August 9, 2009</blockquote>