Monday, May 03, 2010

The guys who succeed are too big to fail

William D. Cohan, New York Times:

“The guys who succeed in this industry are the guys who say, ‘I care about the reputation of the firm,” [the former partner] continued. “I care about my reputation. I care about doing the right thing. I care about having a great firm. I care about attracting and retaining the best people. If I do all of these things and do good business, eventually I’ll be fine.’ But in this top five, there is nothing about making money. The guys for whom making money is in the top three almost always get themselves into trouble. And this is the essence of how Goldman has changed.”

Dear buddy: In your industry, each and every one of your "top five" is synonymous with "making money."

The "guys who succeed" are the ones who deploy the same extra-legal advantages as everyone else; but they succeed so well that they aren't allowed to fail -- that's what municipalities are for!

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