An interesting item, with all the needed links, about Goldman Sachs, and its former agent, Smith.

Not this Agent Smith

A different Goldman Sachs agent apparently, but is Goldman "The Matrix?" There's room to argue for the proposition. While not a betting man in general, I would wager Goldman has its good share of Agent Smiths. With the firm spending a fortune on sunglasses.

This item, this quote:

Shooting the messenger

True, the financial crisis sweeping the United States hit home to all of us, but Occupy Wall Street served the purpose of shining a light on the financial industry. The global “Occupy” movement excoriated Wall Street for being greedy beyond the pale. From these broadsides, America was divided into the 1% of the haves and the 99% of the have-nots.

Enter Greg Smith, six months later, making Goldman look like the poster child for all that is wrong with Wall Street. In his essay, Smith made Gordon Gekko look like a wimp by comparison.

So, why did Bloomberg’s editors make such a fuss, anyway? As a former employee of the company, I have some ideas.

Perhaps its editorial writer felt genuinely insulted by Smith’s apparent gesture of piousness and felt that the former Goldman employee was exploiting the situation. If Smith was so freaked out by Goldman’s greed, why the heck did it take the guy 12 years to see the light, right?

Maybe there’s some sour grapes. I’d be pretty ticked off if I got “scooped” by the New York Times.

Or...

Could Bloomberg be acting in the interests of the parent company Bloomberg L.P? After all, its founder, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is himself a distinguished veteran of Wall Street.

Mayor Bloomberg, who didn’t throw his support behind the Occupy Wall Street protesters last year, visited Goldman’s headquarters to give the firm a pat on the back after Smith’s manifesto hit. Read “Goldman, Bloomberg and crony capitalism.”

“The mayor stopped by to make clear that the company is a vital part the city’s economy, and the kind of unfair attacks that we’re seeing can eventually hurt all New Yorkers,” Stu Loeser, a spokesman for hizzoner, pointed out.

[bolding and link in original] That is from page 2 of the online item, and most of the background links are on the opening page, here, so please go there, read that. And the linked items have links. Enjoy.

Gentlemen who rose to prominence and prosperity from within the ranks of gentlemen prefer gentlemen who talk publicly, like gentlemen? What?