Lloyd Blankfein

By Abid Ali in Business on April 17th, 2010
Picture from AFP

Reputation is everything. Ask Tiger Woods. His extra-marital affairs had his sponsors in a tizz. Accounting giant Accenture axed Tiger's multi-million dollar sponsorship deal, as did Pepsi's Gatorade. Bouncing back to become the world's No.1 golfer and restoring his reputation among his peers and onlookers will also take time.

By John Terrett in Americas on February 2nd, 2010
Photo from EPA

The Investment bank Goldman Sachs is facing a storm of criticism over reports its chief executive could pocket a bonus of up to $100m.

By Teymoor Nabili in Business on December 26th, 2009
Photo from EPA

The Financial Times "Person of The Year" is Lloyd Blankfein, the head of Goldman Sachs,

a tough, bright, funny (everyone remarks upon his unpretentious, wisecracking manner) financier who reoriented Goldman... [under whom] Its influence has spread throughout the world, from New York and London to Shanghai and São Paulo.

It's an interesting choice. There are many who would argue that - Blankfein's wiseracking notwithstanding - Goldman's influence around the world has been catastrophically destructive and malign at its very core, or as Rolling Stone put it:

By John Terrett in Business on November 16th, 2009
Photo by AFP

Protesters gathered outside the Washington DC headquarters of Goldman Sachs on Monday.

They were there to protest the giant bank's plans to pay out more than $20bn in bonuses to executives in 2009.

They were also angry Goldman's spending millions of dollars lobbying Congress against so called "too big to fail" legislation that would give authorities power to break up complicated companies if they show signs of getting into trouble.

"Goldman Sachs is at the cutting edge of the most abusive practices that are taking place on Wall Street and in Washington DC," Robert Weissman, president of the Public Citizen consumer advocacy group, told Al Jazeera.

"This year alone they're planning to pay themselves more than $20bn in bonuses and executive compensation payments, the same year that Wall Street has received trillions of dollars in public support just to stay in business."

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