1. «Doing God’s work»
Blankfein‘s attempts to rehabilitate himself and Goldman Sachs for the mistakes which led to the financial crisis weren’t always successful. «Is it at all possible to earn too much money, and be too ambitious and too successful?» he wrote in the «New York Times» in 2009. He and all the other bankers were simply doing «God’s work», he said, something which sounded more like a justification than an apology.
However Blankfein was fully aware of the gravity of the recession in which the U.S. found itself. «I know I could slit my wrists and people would applaud», he noted, reflecting his reputation as a casino banker.
2. The «Respected Journalist»
It would be superfluous to say there are «respected journalists» Blankfein scoffed in an Interview with Charlie Rose for «Bloomberg». The Goldman CEO’s nerve was exposed in the exchanges and he destroyed whatever goodwill he hoped to generate from the interview. Shortly before he had confided to Rose that Goldman Sachs had been far too media-shy, and that it had been a mistake not to make any TV appearances.
