Synthetic Assets. The Epicurean Dealmaker. Wall Street, investment bankers, and social good. A few months ago, I came across an announcement that Citigroup, the parent company of Citibank, was to be honored, along with its chief executive, Vikram Pandit, for “Advancing the Field of Asset Building in America.” This seemed akin to, say, saluting BP for services to the environment or praising Facebook for its commitment to privacy.
During the past decade, Citi has become synonymous with financial misjudgment, reckless lending, and gargantuan losses: what might be termed asset denuding rather than asset building. In late 2008, the sprawling firm might well have collapsed but for a government bailout. Even today the U.S. taxpayer is Citigroup’s largest shareholder. The award ceremony took place on September 23rd in Washington, D.C., where the Corporation for Enterprise Development, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to expanding economic opportunities for low-income families and communities, was holding its biennial conference. There is something in what Mack says.
The Wall Street Fix | FRONTLINE. Wall Street's Latest Campus Recruiting Crisis Sparked by Goldman Controversy. Casey Kelbaugh for The New York TimesCory Finley has written a play called “The Private Sector” that is set at a hedge fund corporate retreat. Wall Street, once a magnet for America’s best and brightest, is facing a recruiting problem.
The industry’s cachet, which was tarnished during the financial disaster, has been further stained by the lingering economic slowdown and a series of highly publicized industry scandals that have drawn critical attention to the big banks. The most recent public relations storm stemmed from a resignation letter this week on The New York Times Op-Ed page, written by Greg Smith, a former Goldman Sachs executive director. Mr. Smith, who took the bank to task over what he described as a “toxic and destructive” culture at the firm, said his moment of ultimate realization had come while extolling the benefits of a Goldman career to college students. “It’s something that fulfills me in a deep way,” said Mr. “I have no interest in working at Goldman,” he said.
Mr.