If it indeed enjoys blood, the phantom squid plaguing the financial system must be feasting right now. Members of the financial media are tearing each other up over whether Goldman Sachs is good or evil, and the fight is providing an increasingly effective counterpoint to the mounting pile of stories about Goldman’s sickeningly large returns. The bank whose image problem stems from making too much money is getting a media boost that’s coming, ironically, free of charge.
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Last week, we marveled at the shelf life Rolling Stone journalist Matt Taibbi’s article, which blamed Goldman Sachs for a heaping share of input to the financial crisis, was enjoying in the financial news media. Taibbi’s beautiful line about the great vampire squid (which renewed our personal interest, we should add, in mysterious deep sea creatures) echoed over and over again this weekend in the Financial Times, and it’s still pulsing vigorously through commentary on the Internet. Taibbi claimed in the article that Goldman had done a great deal of damage to the financial system all by itself. His accusations riled other members of the financial press and, over the past few weeks, they have begun to fight back.
On Wednesday of last week Heidi N. Moore, writing for Slate’s The Big Money blog, offered a defense of Goldman, arguing that the bank’s corporate culture and strategy rendered it superior to competitors. This, she said, was an achievement for which no apology was necessary. And CNBC’s Charlie Gasparino, writing for The Daily Beast, on Sunday said the Rolling Stone article was comprised of “a combination of half-truths, superstitions, and a lack of understanding about the financial crisis.”
Taibbi and Moore have apparently since begun fighting it out, he on his blog and she with yet another article today in The Big Money, and guess what: More journos seem to be on her side.
As we occasionally do at BankThink, we are going to withhold judgment on the main point: Whether Goldman’s the devil spawn or a golden ideal. Whichever option is true, the fact remains that the bank is getting a great deal of attention and, in a Paris Hilton sort of way, some serious benefits. We think the bank owes the financial media a big shout out and many thanks.
