Commercial Real Estate Finance

Is Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein thinking hard, or about to drop another turd on everybody?

So the SEC has filed suit against Goldman Sachs.  Most people are saying hallelujah.  “Its about time they get what they deserve,” are the thoughts of most not in the know.  Yet, whether Goldman ends up being guilty of securities fraud or not, one thing remains a fact:  Its Goldman’s nature, nay, its business, to take advantage of people and situations.  Investors, little leaguers, the city of New York, or even its own employees.  Read their shit list…

In 2004, many Wall Streeters were worried in the wake of 9/11 about security, and many were threatening to leave lower Manhattan.  Amidst this panic, Goldman Sachs decided it would take advantage of the panic by upgrading into a brand new building…one that didn’t have a shitty, obstructed view of New Jersey. In 2005, Goldman received tax breaks and grants valued at more than $200 million toward the new building, which stands just across the street from Ground Zero.

But after swindling the city to finance their new digs, they continued to drop bombs on innocent bystanders….literally. In 2007, seven tons of steel fell off the 740-foot-tall building, paralyzing an architect on the ground. Then a sheet of steel plummeted from the 18th floor, landing in a baseball field where a Little League game was being played.

As if that type of collateral damage weren’t painful enough, they continued the assault on their own long time employees. Outside offices are now reserved only for the firm’s more than 300 elite partners. Managing directors, next down in the Goldman hierarchy, almost always get windowless inside offices. And vice presidents, many of whom had offices before the move, now sit at open-space workbenches that in an earlier era would have been called a typing pool. They aren’t thrilled.

“I haven’t had a desk like this since high school,” said one employee who asked not to be named. “I used to have an office with a view,” explained one managing director. “Now I need binoculars to see sunlight.”

“If I had been at a bench my whole life, it would be fine,” said one vice president, “but I used to have an office.”

Hmm.  That complaint sounds eerily similar to,  “If I was always poor, I wouldn’t be complaining that I have no more money, but I used to be rich.”  I wonder how much sympathy those guys will get from the general public.