“The peril wasn’t that Goldman became ‘a great vampire squid,’ as a Rolling Stone writer so delicately phrased it. The firm actually became something much more dangerous: a seductively successful Pied Piper, luring other banks down a path that led to destruction. Its profitability was the envy of its peers … Trying to match Goldman’s return on equity was the only way for rivals to pacify their restive shareholders and increase their personal wealth.” IT WAS GOLDMAN MADE THEM DO IT! They were possessed! They saw Lloyd Blankfein with the devil! They saw Gary Cohn with the devil! They saw Lucas van Praag with the devil! [Bloomberg]
