From MarketWatch.com entitled
Volcker blames Goldman trading for culture change:
Quote:
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Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker on Wednesday said a sharply critical resignation letter by a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. executive is a reflection of a changing market mentality over the past fifteen years about investment banks. Volcker said that Goldman Sachs' transformation into a publicly traded firm that acquired a large trading operation drove it away from its former strategy of focusing on customer needs. "That changed the mentality and I'm afraid it's a business that leads to a lot of conflicts of interest," Volcker said at a conference hosted by The Atlantic magazine. Volcker referred to a resignation editorial written by Greg Smith, the leaving Goldman Sachs executive, who said in the New York Times on Wednesday that the culture at the firm is "as toxic and destructive as I have ever known it."
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Volcker was the Federal Reserve chief who finally solved a previous major recession in late 1970 by doing what others (ie President Ford) was unwilling to do. He raised interest rates so that commercial rates were about 20%.