I'm sorry, but this ex-Goldmanite is full of shit.  GS has been a company of scumbags forever.  My guess: He's got more money than he knows what to do with, and he's looking for a book deal to capitalize on the anti-Goldman views of the public to pad the great-grandkids' trust funds in his retirement.

And his clients are muppets.  We've known Goldman does this kind of shit for years.  The obvious question is, Why is Goldman able to attract clients?

Look through the comments at the NYT.  "I'm a GS client, and I can't get my money out or know anything about the proprietary fund I was sold!  I lost 35% since 2008!"  Who the fuck buys funds without knowing what's in them, aside from presidents and others who require blind trusts?

It sounds like it's really no different from the small-scale Ponzi schemes you see here and there every couple years.  Except Ponzi schemes actually pay out in the early-going.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.

More character assassination: Bankers versus bitching rights, a graphical representation (FT Alphaville)

So, a particularly vocal disappointed banker has left the fold. And not just any banker: a Goldmanite banker. He's been part of the empire firm long enough to get a top job in the US government see it change for the worse. Apparently.

There are three stories about the euro crisis: the Republican story, the German story, and the truth. -- Paul Krugman

Was this other guy character-assassinated by the financial commentariat?

If you haven't seen it already, self-proclaimed `stock market trader and forex trainer' Alessio Rastani, appeared on the BBC yesterday declaring, among other things, that Goldman Sachs rather than governments rules the world, that he's been, "dreaming" of a market crash for three years and that everyone's savings are about to be wiped out.

...

And then - for a few hours - it looked like Rastani was a spoof. Robert Peston, the BBC's business editor admitted that Rastani may in fact have been one of the YesMen, a satirical duo specializing in posing as executives and making extreme comments in their name. Although Rastani has his own website and has written 1,700 tweets, he looks suspiciously like the Yes Men's Andy Bichelbaum, who appears here (also on the BBC) giving a spoof interview about the Bhopal disaster.

It transpires, however, that Rastani IS real and that he merely resembles Andy Bichelbaum. The Telegraph has been to visit him in his 200k house in Bexleyheath, where he says he's not much of a trader but is an "attention seeker" who likes to talk.

There are three stories about the euro crisis: the Republican story, the German story, and the truth. -- Paul Krugman