Goldman Sachs has been playing nice this week. The New York Times reports that the thriving bank will spend 500 million dollars to assist struggling small businesses. The head of the bank, Lloyd C. Blankfein, is reported to have acknowledged at a conference in New York that Goldman had made mistakes, and that it was sorry. “We participated in things that were clearly wrong and have reason to regret,” he said. “We apologize.”
My analysis: Mr. Blankfein expressed regret and accepted responsibility for wrongdoing. The bank is also working to make restitution and they have enlisted the help of Warren Buffet in that effort. The bank could have strengthened its apology by fleshing out these categories, by identifying what they will do differently to prevent themselves from such wrongdoing next time, and by requesting forgiveness from those who were harmed by their actions. Overall, I’d like to congratulate the firm on this positive step.