{"id":15780,"date":"2012-10-22T06:20:09","date_gmt":"2012-10-22T04:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/10\/who-are-the-muppets-now-goldman-expose-falls-short-of-hype\/"},"modified":"2012-10-22T06:20:09","modified_gmt":"2012-10-22T04:20:09","slug":"who-are-the-muppets-now-goldman-expose-falls-short-of-hype","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/who-are-the-muppets-now-goldman-expose-falls-short-of-hype\/","title":{"rendered":"Who are the muppets now? Goldman expos\u00e9 falls short of hype"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Lauren Tara LaCapra<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

NEW YORK<\/span> Oct 21 (Reuters) – The tell-all book that Goldman
\nSachs Group Inc former equity derivatives salesman Greg
\nSmith has delivered may end up being remembered more for the
\nmarketing skills he picked up at the Wall Street bank than for
\nany bombshell revelations.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Smith created a furor earlier this year when he resigned
\nfrom the blue chip Wall Street firm, alleging in a New York
\nTimes Op-Ed column that the firm had engendered a “toxic”
\nculture of treating clients as “muppets” – slang in Britain for
\nidiots – and relieving them of their money.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Smith then promised a book about the bank, building up
\nexpectations of an expos\u00e9 with new insights about the culture at
\nGoldman. The threat prompted a public relations campaign and
\ninternal inquiries at the bank, as it tried to avoid another hit
\nto its image after suffering a barrage of bad publicity in
\nrecent years.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Smith reportedly received $1.5 million as an upfront payment
\nfor the book, which is being published by Grand Central
\nPublishing, a unit of Hachette. He has lined up a series of
\ninterviews, including one with Reuters, to talk about the book
\n“Why I left Goldman Sachs”, which will be released on Monday.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Early reviews of Smith’s 288-page book are now in, and they
\naren’t good. Reviewers, who received copies of the full book,
\nhave panned it for being a sleepy read with no big revelations
\n— or worse, misleading.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The tawdriest revelations are about a bachelor party in Las
\nVegas with a topless woman, and Smith having seen Lloyd
\nBlankfein, Goldman’s chief executive, in the buff after
\nshowering at the gym.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“There were no examples of a toxic culture at work, no
\nactual names of morally bankrupt people and no examples of a
\nclient getting ripped off,” wrote James Stewart, himself the
\nauthor of top selling business books such as Den of Thieves, in
\nhis column in the New York Times.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“Mr. Smith’s book might even bolster Goldman’s reputation.
\nAfter all, if Mr. Smith is the ultimate insider, and this is as
\nbad as it gets – Mr. Smith in a hot tub at the Mandalay Bay
\nHotel in Las Vegas with a topless woman – then he hasn’t made
\nmuch of a case,” said Stewart.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Lauren Tara LaCapra NEW YORK Oct 21 (Reuters) – The tell-all book that Goldman Sachs Group Inc former equity derivatives salesman Greg Smith has delivered may end up being remembered more for the marketing skills he picked up at the Wall Street bank than for any bombshell revelations. Smith created a furor earlier this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-15780","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15780\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}