Comments on: Revamping Goldman’s board

By: strawman

strawman — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 00:34:35 +0000

To the prior commentator – I’m not sure that emerging from the crash with it’s assets intact qualifies as good financial management. Saying, “My business model allows us to generate substantial profits, so long as the government steps in to take up the duties of our counterparties and then exits their positions at a substantial taxpayer loss,” may work, but it’s not the thing which management genius is built upon.

I’ve never bought the Goldman line that they had adequately insured themselves against the crash without government involvement. A world in which the government didn’t stabilize financial institutions is not a world where AIG pays out. Goldman’s unwillingness to admit at much is naked contempt bordering on idiocy.

By: nimrod666

nimrod666 — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:25:02 +0000

It seems to me that management did a remarkable job and deserve the bonus that they recieved. They did not lose anything when the crash came as they had the fore sight to insure their bad risks with AIG, who took the lose. Goldman recieved 100% coverage on the sub-prime instruments and got billions of low cost money from the government to use in further investments and have already repaid that money. A remarkable feat to say the least in this economy.

By: IdiotSavant

IdiotSavant — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 11:56:12 +0000

Give public companies back to the shareholders.
At a minimum we need to ban bondholders from holding positions on the board of directors on companies in which they hold bonds.
Shareholders are the best people to look out for their interests in the companies they are supposed to be the owners of.

By: Publius

Publius — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 20:36:35 +0000

Sure, it’s easy to lampoon Simmons as a hood-ornament Board member, but different Board members bring different kinds of expertise. That’s as true for a Church Board as it is for Goldman’s. Perhaps Ms. Simmons brings expertise in higher education finance. With experience at Brown, Smith, Princeton, Spelman, Radcliff, GWU, and USC she certainly has seen the inside of an administration building.

Such experience might not be relevant to structuring CDS IFSA contracts, but it might be relevant to HR, client finances, public finance, and the rock-star culture that attended investors like David Swensen at Yale.

By: lknobel

lknobel — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:37:42 +0000

The Simmons interview is egregious, certainly. But your shots at the management consultant and business school professor are less accurate. Rajat Gupta ran McKinsey for years and Bill George turned Medtronic into a world-leading company. Neither may be financial titans, but I’d be confident saying neither would be snowed by Blankfein or anyone else. They’re not mere adornments on the board. I suspect they will be as tough as anyone else they could fine (which, in the atmosphere of public company boards, generally doesn’t mean tough enough — agreed).

So after the defense, the barb. Follow George on Twitter, http://twitter.com/Bill_George, and it’s easy to wonder if he ever met a CEO he didn’t admire. The other day he lauded the choice of John Thain for CIT.