Goldman conducts company-wide email review: sources
Goldman Sachs Group Inc has begun scanning internal emails for the term "muppet" and other evidence that employees referred to clients in derogatory ways, Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein told partners in a conference call this week, according to people familiar with the call.As we learned last week:
The company-wide email review comes after an executive director named Greg Smith resigned last week in a scathing op-ed column in the New York Times in which he said he saw five Goldman managing directors refer to clients as "muppets," at times over internal email.
In the United States, "muppet" brings to mind lovable puppets such as Kermit the Frog, but in Britain "muppet" is slang for a stupid person....MORE
Actually, the Muppets ARE Goldman Sachs clients
Yesterday's big news in the financial world wasn't Apple stock climbing above $600 per share — it was the op-ed resignation letter to end all resignation letters penned by former Goldman Sachs executive Greg Smith, in which he savaged the Vampire Squid and accused it of betraying its clients.
That's not a Goldman Sachs executive behind the wheel.
According to Smith, Goldman clients aren't clients — they're routinely referred to as "Muppets."
Goldman lost $2 billion of market value in a hurry as the news circulated through the Muppet Theater.
No word on whether there is or ever has been a Vampire Squid Muppet in the works. They've already got Count von Count, after all. You could probably just add a few more arms and a blood funnel.
However, it turns out that calling clients Muppets, in Goldman-speak, isn't necessarily the insult that it sounds like at first. Because the Muppets are Goldman clients. I'm not kidding.
Back in May of 2003, the family of Muppets creator Jim Henson was advised by Goldman on buying back the fluffy, colorful characters from a merchandising company...MORE at Public Radio's KPCC, 89.3
Here's Blankfein trying to win them back:
