Goldman Traitor Greg Smith: Hero or Weasel?

Former Goldman Sachs executive Greg Smith certainly made a splash with his hit piece on his former employers, but Felix Salmon of Reuters is a wee bit suspicious of his motives. Yes, his points are valid; Goldman surely is bilking customers. But "it's much easier to see the disgruntled ex-employee here, quitting in a huff, than it is to see someone genuinely trying to do his part" to bring back the halcyon days before Goldman Sachs went public—a period Smith himself was barely there for.

"There's a strong smell of faux-naïve coming from Smith's op-ed." Did he really rise through the ranks without making money off clients? "What’s missing is any sense of mea culpa." His next move will be telling: If it's to a regulatory agency, instead of a Goldman competitor, maybe we can take him seriously. Either way, Smith has declared a moral purpose here, "so I hope and trust that he’s going to spend the proceeds of his ill-gotten final bonus check in the service of that moral purpose." Click for Salmon's full column. (More Greg Smith stories.)