Lloyd Blankfein is a sensitive soul. You might think that a personal fortune estimated at north of
$1 billion would insulate you from normal insecurities, but the former Goldman Sachs chief is a worrier.
Lately he’s been tweeting about politics, getting into rows with the Democratic Presidential candidates, none of whom seem to fit his bill.
Senator Elizabeth Warren was accused of “tribalism” and heading towards “a kind of demagoguery” after some fairly mild proposals for a wealth tax which he saw as a war on billionaires.
He used to be a moderate Democrat, but was now seen as a Right-winger because: “I don’t want to blow up the financial system.” Since he was CEO of Goldman Sachs during the financial crash of 2008 and saw his firm enjoy massive government support to get through it, we might think he certainly had a decent crack at blowing it up. He’s not big on irony.
Yesterday Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders earned his ire because he will “ruin our economy and doesn’t care about our military”. Really.
I had a group meeting with Blankfein once. On matters related to Goldman or banking in general, he was impressive. On pretty much everything else he was like your dad’s drunk brother, sitting in the corner ranting about the French, as if they had anything to do with dinner being late.
Someone asked him a question about the economy. Suddenly he was banging on about communism, which was apparently everywhere.
Everyone looked at each other and shrugged. What did communism have to do with it?
Some say Blankfein should pipe down. I hope he keeps going. When bankers talk about things outside their expertise it serves to remind us that they aren’t that much cleverer than the rest of us.
Certainly in no field other than financial services would Blankfein’s skill set have taken him to anything like a billion dollars.
