Goldman Sachs Apologizes

Famed financial titan Goldman Sachs, one of the few Wall Street players to come out of the financial crisis relatively well, may have realized, perhaps, that defending billions of dollars in bonuses, all while saying you’re doing God’s work, might not be the best way to endear one’s self to a public facing 10.4 percent unemployment and rising foreclosure rates.

In an attempt to lose the vampire squid image that has dogged the investment bank lately, Goldman Sachs, on Tuesday, did something almost no multi-billion dollar company has ever done: it apologized. Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman's chief executive, said that the firm was sorry for its role in the global financial meltdown.

"We participated in things that were clearly wrong and have reason to regret," Blankfein said. "We apologize."

As if to underscore just how very sorry they are, just hours later the investment bank announced plans to team up with the world’s most beloved billionaire (really!), Warren Buffet, in investing $100 million a year in small businesses over the next five years. Broken down, this sum includes $200 million to provide scholarships for business education and $300 in loans and philanthropic support, intended to increase capital available for small businesses. According to the New York Times, Goldman has said that this move has absolutely nothing to do with the firm’s public relations headache.

There might be some truth to this – after all, if this were just a PR stunt, maybe they would have offered more than what the Financial Times points out is equivalent of about five days worth of good trading (Goldman Sachs, apparently, had 36 such days in the past year alone) or two percent of its multi-billion dollar compensation budget.

Still, maybe this will finally do something about all the criticism.

Or maybe not.