Goldman Sachs at Center of Politics, Money and Public Furor Once Again - Wall Street Journal
Heading into the 2016 presidential election, most executives on Wall Street would have said one thing was certain no matter who won: The next Treasury secretary wouldn’t come from Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
That reflected the view that Goldman was so tainted in the public mind by the financial crisis that none of its alumni could be floated, much less confirmed, to top government positions.
Like so much other conventional wisdom, that has now proved to be wrong. President-elect Donald Trump is set to name Steven Mnuchin , a Goldman alum, as Treasury secretary.
Mr. Mnuchin worked at the company for 17 years. Most of his time was spent in Goldman’s mortgage-trading business in the early 1990s, though he also oversaw its internet strategy, which resulted in a flopped online wealth-brokerage effort in the early 2000s.
Mr. Mnuchin made partner in 1994, the same class that produced Goldman’s current No. 2, Gary Cohn. Mr. Cohn met with Mr. Trump Tuesday.
If Mr. Mnuchin is confirmed as Treasury secretary, he will be the third former Goldman banker to hold the position in less than 25 years. Robert Rubin served in this role in President Bill Clinton’s second term and Henry Paulson Jr. occupied the spot in President George W. Bush’s second term and brought Goldman banker Robert Steel along as his deputy.
While the firm’s critics have pointed to its extensive ties to government as a sign of Wall Street’s outsize influence, Goldman partners have long viewed public service as an important coda to a finance career.
And the firm’s government ties extend well beyond the Treasury.
William Dudley, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, spent a decade as a Goldman’s chief economist. Joshua Bolten, a legal- and regulatory-affairs executive at Goldman in the 1990s, served as President George W. Bush’s chief of staff, and Steve Friedman, who was among the Goldman partners who rang the New York Stock Exchange bell at the bank’s 1999 debut, served as a senior economic counselor in that administration. Gary Gensler, head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission under President Barack Obama and the finance chief of Hillary Clinton’s campaign, was one of the youngest bankers ever named a partner at Goldman.
Goldman’s government reach isn’t confined to the U.S. Bank of England Gov. Mark Carney, who was previously head of Canada’s central bank, was a Goldman banker for 13 years in its London, Tokyo, New York and Toronto offices.
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi was a vice chairman and managing director in the firm’s international business from 2002 to 2005.Goldman advisers and former employees have served as governors of the central banks of Australia, Greece and South Africa.
The funnel that has sent Goldman executives to Washington dates to the bank’s longtime leader, Sidney Weinberg. Mr. Weinberg, who ran Goldman for more than three decades and oversaw its rise from scrappy second-tier firm to the investment-banking elite, was a supporter and close friend of President Lyndon Johnson, to whom he recommended several men to key cabinet posts.
His influence in the White House elevated Goldman’s status in Washington, a position it solidified during the 1990s and early 2000s.
That Goldman is again back at the pinnacle of the U.S. government is a stunning turnaround from the drubbing its image took during the financial crisis. Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein and other executives were hauled before Congress over trades involving complex financial instruments that were believed to have fueled the financial meltdown.
In 2010, Goldman became the face of Wall Street and the crisis thanks to a damning article in Rolling Stone. The magazine called Goldman “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.”
In the wake of that, Goldman, which long focused only on its reputation with clients, undertook steps to burnish its public image. It boosted its philanthropic efforts, which now support women entrepreneurs and small businesses. Today, Goldman has a consumer bank and weekly podcasts.
“We try not to be tone-deaf and we listen closely,” Mr. Blankfein said recently when asked about his firm’s reputation. “It’s not in as low ebb as it was in the heart of the financial crisis [but] it’s still low ebb. We have to work on that and we know that.”
Write to Liz Hoffman at liz.hoffman@wsj.com
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