In the fall of 2009, back when the sky was falling, Goldman Sachs’ top man, Lloyd Blankfein, explained to The Times of London that his bank was doing “God’s work.” At the time we weren’t sure what Blankfein was getting at.
Perhaps he flattered himself into thinking his firm was efficiently allocating capital to its highest and best use…and that this was, somehow, the work of God. We don’t know. Nonetheless, in an essay titled, Hell To Pay, we scribbled out some thoughts on how Blankfein may have reached this conclusion.
There are some basic rules to how the world works, we reasoned. And there are consequences for ignoring them. For example, you can’t get something for nothing, artificially suppressing the price of money distorts an economy, and, most importantly, a fool and his money are soon parted.
Recognizing these basic rules, we surmised, is also acknowledging there’s a divine moral and natural order to the world. Consequently, we concluded, Blankfein was right. Based on the presence of a divine order, by separating fools from their money, Goldman Sachs was, in fact, doing “God’s work.” Continue reading
