Speaking recently at a breakfast conversation hosted by Fortune, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein told the magazine’s managing editor Andy Serwer, he didn’t realize the $10 billion the Treasury lent the firm last fall would come with so many strings attached. “Had I known it was this pregnant with this potential for backlash then I would not have liked it,” he said.
Asked whether the firm had undertaken a “charm offensive” in response to the unfavorable remarks over his firm’s outlandish comps, Blankfein suggested Goldman has if anything been too reticent about its strong points. “It’s not a charm offensive,” Blankfein said. “We’re doing things we should have done all along to show people what we do in the world.”
Through the end of the 3Q Goldman had set aside nearly $527K for each worker ; putting the record annual average payout of $662,000 within reach. Blankfein also dismissed the the charge that the firm is making most of its money by speculating using cheap government funds in stressed markets.
