Modern Midas

摘要

"It is important to be a bit institution-ally paranoid, especially when things are going well." Thus Lloyd Blankfein, chief executive of Goldman Sachs at a conference in November. After the year Goldman has had, Mr Blankfein cannot be far off hearing imaginary voices. On December 18th the investment bank unveiled full-year results that contrived to be both widely expected and astonishing. Earnings in the fourth quarter stood at $3.2 billion, a 2% rise on the same period in 2006. Even as most of its peers have been dragged down by subprime-re-lated investments, Goldman's fixed-income business has boomed, thanks in part to a proprietary bet that the value of mortgage-backed securities would fall. The rest of its businesses are also steaming ahead. Its share price, as of December 18th, remained (just) up from the start of the year. Its status as Wall Street's employer of choice is gold-plated, not least because of a bonus-and-salary pool of $20 billion. "If Goldman Sachs comes calling, you have to consider it," says one headhunter.