Skip to main content

Goldman Sachs

Former SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt, who serves as a senior policy advisor for Goldman Sachs, spoke to Bloomberg TV’s Erik Schatzker this morning on “Inside Track.” Levitt said that Goldman should stop saying, “The firm puts customers first.” He goes on to say, “There is a logical, reasonable, fair, understandable tension between a seller of a product and a buyer of a product. That’s not to stay that buyers should beware. It is to say there should be transparency. But on the other hand, let’s not create a fellowship of buyers and sellers that will march into the sunset.” Whoa!
Hello again, this does not sound like a bank, and this is the reason investment brokerages must be separated once more and for all from banking. An investment house sells products, that’s not to say the public should not have some protection in buying these products, but they are investment products and the buyer can choose to buy or not and the tension makes sense.
However, a bank has a fiduciary responsibility to its depositors and customers that transcends the free market. The bank has a duty of safety for both the bank and the customer.

“A bank’s fiduciary duty, whenever it is applied, sets a very high standard of conduct for the bank. It is obliged to act with integrity and fairness. It must also act with professionalism and skill. However, beyond that, fiduciary duty is underpinned by a duty to exercise the power vested in the bank, without abusing it. The key words are loyalty and fidelity. A bank “as a fiduciary” is required to perform its duties solely for the purpose for which the power was vested in it, without ulterior motives and while protecting the interest of the beneficiary – the customer. Moreover, a bank must prefer the interest of its customer to the interests of others, including its own self-interest; in fact, a bank must avoid being in a situation of a conflict of interest. The fear is that a bank might not withstand temptation and might not promptly guard the interest of the customer before its own interest.” ROLF H. WEBER University of Zurich


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Existentialism

There are more things in this World Horatio, than are dreamed of in your philosophies Shakespeare Definitions from Oxford Languages · Learn more: adjective relating to existence. "The climate crisis is an existential threat to the world." PHILOSOPHY concerned with existence, especially human existence as viewed in the theories of existentialism. "The existential dilemma is this: because we are free, we are also inherently responsible." LOGIC (of a proposition) affirming or implying the existence of a thing. the existential proposition that truth and reality are constructed fictions" Even physicists struggle with truth. Reality in the laws of physics repeatedly give way to new findings. The James Webb Telescope finds galaxies beyond the time and space of the established Universe. Anthropologists find evidence of civilizations earlier than documented history. What is truth? The use of the word existential as a syndrome for virtual truth begs the question o...
Post a Comment
Read more

Silent Voices

Civilizations under pressure often produce voices that crystallize their deepest questions. These are rarely kings or generals, but philosophers, teachers, and public figures who step into the square to provoke. Their role is not to rule but to make society face itself. In ancient Athens, that voice was Socrates. He wrote nothing. He simply asked: What is justice? What is virtue? What is the good life? His relentless questioning unsettled his fellow citizens, and Athens condemned him to death. He refused to flee, insisting that the examined life was the only life worth living. His death turned him into a symbol of Athens’ own unease. Our world has its own public voices. In recent years, Charlie Kirk became one of them. Whatever one thought of his politics, he drew large crowds, not only on American campuses but even in London and among Māori in New Zealand. He thrived on dialogue — fielding questions, sparring with critics, drawing applause. The style was different. Socrates aimed a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Domestic Labor

A smal incrament of domestic economic activity drives a large increase in the GDP. Vvelocity times money supply equals gross domestic product (GDP). The Velocity in single didgits when multiplied by money in the trillions has far greater effect than interest rates. For many decades, society overlooked and denounced Domestic labord. IRS reporting requirements, imcontax on the worker and social stigma discouraged if not eliminated this valuable segment of the labor force. Tax free, regulation free, domestic employment would add a significant boost to the overall economy, employ the unemployable, and provide shelter to the homeless, not a hundred percent, but to a significant degree. Think affordable houskeeping, cooking, and babysitting for the single mother working long hours.
Post a Comment
Read more