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ISBN:	1455598860 (ISBN13: 9781455598861)
Edition Language:	English

Why I Left Goldman Sachs: A Wall Street Story

Greg Smith

Paperback | Pages: 380 pages

Rating: 3.7 | 2640 Users | 263 Reviews

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On March 14, 2012, more than three million people read Greg Smith's bombshell Op-Ed in the New York Times titled "Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs." The column immediately went viral, became a worldwide trending topic on Twitter, and drew passionate responses from former Fed chairman Paul Volcker, legendary General Electric CEO Jack Welch, and New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg. Mostly, though, it hit a nerve among the general public who question the role of Wall Street in society -- and the callous "take-the-money-and-run" mentality that brought the world economy to its knees a few short years ago. Smith now picks up where his Op-Ed left off.

His story begins in the summer of 2000, when an idealistic 21-year-old arrives as an intern at Goldman Sachs and learns about the firm's Business Principle #1: Our clients' interests always come first. This remains Smith's mantra as he rises from intern to analyst to sales trader, with clients controlling assets of more than a trillion dollars.

From the shenanigans of his summer internship during the technology bubble to Las Vegas hot tubs and the excesses of the real estate boom; from the career lifeline he received from an NFL Hall of Famer during the bear market to the day Warren Buffett came to save Goldman Sachs from extinction-Smith will take the reader on his personal journey through the firm, and bring us inside the world's most powerful bank.

Smith describes in page-turning detail how the most storied investment bank on Wall Street went from taking iconic companies like Ford, Sears, and Microsoft public to becoming a "vampire squid" that referred to its clients as "muppets" and paid the government a record half-billion dollars to settle SEC charges. He shows the evolution of Wall Street into an industry riddled with conflicts of interest and a profit-at-all-costs mentality: a perfectly rigged game at the expense of the economy and the society at large.

After conversations with nine Goldman Sachs partners over a twelve-month period proved fruitless, Smith came to believe that the only way the system would ever change was for an insider to finally speak out publicly. He walked away from his career and took matters into his own hands. This is his story.

Declare Regarding Books Why I Left Goldman Sachs: A Wall Street Story

Title	:	Why I Left Goldman Sachs: A Wall Street Story
Author	:	Greg Smith
Book Format	:	Paperback
Book Edition	:	First Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 380 pages
Published	:	October 26th 2012 by Grand Central Publishing (first published October 24th 2010)
Categories	:	Nonfiction. Business. Economics. Finance. Biography. Autobiography. Memoir. Biography Memoir

Rating Regarding Books Why I Left Goldman Sachs: A Wall Street Story

Ratings: 3.7 From 2640 Users | 263 Reviews

Rate Regarding Books Why I Left Goldman Sachs: A Wall Street Story

Very succinct introduction into the transition that many trading floors went through between the late '90s and today. The author is very evidently biased towards his views which deters from the effectiveness of the book, however an enjoyable read nonetheless.

I thought this was going to be a cynical account of Greg's time at Goldman and an expose of corruption, but it was a very insightful look into what made Goldman Sachs great, and how that got lost along the way. I detected no bitterness or anger, but mostly an almost idealistic longing for Goldman to return to the purer pre-IPO days.

While this is a story of a young mans career in finance, it is also documentation of change in organizational culture in a premier American institution. It may be a representation of what happened on Wall Street in a brief 12 years.Greg Smith had served as a GS intern and was thrilled to be among those selected for employment. He described the extensive training program, the long days, the Open Meetings, his peer group, the dress code and licensing tests (& how he took his on Sept 11, 2001).

This was a thoughtful, honest, and engaging read about a world I don't know about, nor plan to know about intimately. Smith's story is clear and easy to understand for for financially illiterate people, which I very much appreciated. I think that this books requires an open mind in order for it to be appreciated. I looked at some of the negative reviews and those reviewers read this book with a predetermined hate for Wall Street, which defeats the purpose of the book. (In fact, those people are

Trying to learn, albeit later in life, what the world of investing is all about, I listened to Jack Bogle's Little Book of Common Sense on Investing -- twice. After that as introduction, I thought I'd give Greg Smith's audiobook a hearing as a follow-up. Why I Left Goldman Sachs turned out to be a very complementary companion read. The story is autobiographical, told by a gifted, recently graduated (Stanford, circa 2000), covering his 10+ years with GS. Smith is quite candid about both what

He wrote an op-ed for the NYT that you could read instead if you want to jump to why he left. My favorite parts of the book were the details about Greg's relationships, childhood, day to day life etc.

Despite the largely mediocre reception this book received, I was nonetheless exited to read it. I thought that Smith was brave to do what he did. My usage of the term 'brave' is contextual; ultimately, I dont allocate much of my empathy to a man whose primary interest for the time period depicted in the book was receiving an annual $1mil bonus. However, any criticism of Smith runs the very real risk of holding him to a standard that no other Wall Street executive is held to. Ill concede that