...and speaking of distractions, have you discovered @GSElevator, the Thinkingman's Overheard in New York? They've got 78,000 followers as of this morning (including me), all enjoying the spectacle of crass vulgarity in the vertical corridors of power. I've read a fair amount of commentary that speaks of the "arrogance" of these merry pranksters and arrogance is not entirely wrong, but I'd lean more to "bluff and bluster," coupled with lots of free-floating anger and whole boatloads of insecurity. One thing that has long fascinated me about Wall Street bankers is how pissed-off they all seem to be: would you really want to join a profession that seems always to leave you just one automatic weapon away from a moment of suicide by cop?
And one point of perspective: these guys may earn zillions ("rich," says one, "but not give-up-my-US-passport rich"), but I get the strong sense that what we hear here are not the real movers and shakers; rather, these are the underlings, the foodsoldiers, the myrmidons, the running dogs of capitalism who get to do the dirty work while their masters dine with popes and kings. And they know it, these underlings: unloved as they are by so many, including themselves, they spend a good chunk of their day wondering where the real Goldman Sachs elevator might be.
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