Do not be quotable is probably a good motto for bankers, one that was ignored by Chuck Prince, the former chairman and chief executive of Citigroup. Now Lloyd Blankfein, head of Goldman Sachs, appears to have fallen into the same trap.
Mr Blankfein’s wry claim that Goldman is “doing God’s work” by financing companies and investors is among the most memorable things a Wall Street banker has said since Mr Prince told the Financial Times that “as long as the music is playing, you’ve got to get up and dance.”
A long profile of Goldman in the Sunday Times last weekend ended thus:
Goldman Sachs, this pillar of the free market, breeder of super-citizens, object of envy and awe will go on raking it in, getting richer than God? An impish grin spreads across Blankfein’s face. Call him a fat cat who mocks the public. Call him wicked. Call him what you will. He is, he says, just a banker “doing God’s work.”
By Wednesday, Maureen Dowd of the New York Times was getting up a fine head of steam:
As far as doing God’s work, I think the bankers who took government money and then gave out obscene bonuses are the same self-interested sorts Jesus threw out of the temple.
I have always found Mr Blankfein a likeable, intelligent and entertaining advocate for Goldman but he has one quality that, while appealing, is risky in a chief executive. He is funny.
In good times, the fact that he is a wise-cracking sort who does not take himself too seriously is a fine thing. But in bad times it makes him very quotable, which in turns provides material for the bank’s critics.
Mr Prince never escaped that quote once Citi ran into trouble (even though he was making a perfectly decent underlying point) and he resigned four months later. I think it will take Mr Blankfein some time to live down his own bon mot.
Perhaps, sad as it is, Mr Blankfein needs to train himself to be a boring banker.
