Now that Lloyd Blankfein says he plans to extend his reign as the chief executive of the controversial investment bank Goldman Sachs, it’s nice to know that he’s developed a new policy to address one of the most pressing matters facing his employees, shareholders and investors around the world: He’s now in favor of gay marriage.
No joke.
Now, plenty of people support gay marriage (myself included). But why does the head of a big bank feel compelled to publicly announce his position on a topic that, when all’s said and done, has next to nothing to do with running his company?
Publicly, Blankfein gave a pretty convoluted answer. Marriage equality, he said in a CBS interview, is a “civil rights issue but it’s also a business issue.”
He elaborated: It’s going to be hard for Goldman to attract a “whole set of very talented people” — employees who want to share their benefits with same-sex spouses — unless the firm takes a stand in favor of gay marriage.
All well and good — until you peel back several layers of BS. Regardless of sexual orientation, people usually work for Goldman because they can make money hand over fist there. Most investors buy Goldman stock not because Blankfein is sensitive to progressive politics but because the firm is ruthless in the markets, and so very profitable.
And Blankfein’s own conversion from Vampire Squid (as the Goldman crew’s been dubbed) to civil-rights activist comes as officials at the firm concede they’re under relentless pressure by a new and aggressive type of “shareholder activist” pushing the business community to embrace a left-wing political agenda.
These shareholder activists aren’t guys like Dan Loeb of the hedge fund Third Point or even the old corporate raider Carl Icahn — folks looking to prod management to make business changes to boost shareholder value (i.e., raise the stock price).
No, political shareholder activists aren’t all that interested in share price and profit. This increasingly organized band includes public-employee unions (with major influence or outright control of pension funds) and mutual funds espousing “responsible investing” — as well as and public officials like New York’s Bill de Blasio and Thomas DiNapoli, who controls billions in public pension fund money.
If they really don’t like the fact that Walmart is non-union, they can sell their stock. But that’s not how these guys roll: They want Corporate America to bend to their will, by endorsing everything from the green agenda to ObamaCare or a replay of the failed Obama stimulus package.
And they want businesses to stop hiring lobbyists, as if the business community doesn’t have a right to try to voice an opinion about taxes and other issues that can break it. They also want firms to disclose every dollar they send to groups like the US Chamber of Commerce, which supports fiscal restraint out of the fear that runaway debt will crash the economy.
The unions are now prodding the Obama administration’s top Wall Street regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission, for a new rule forcing any regulated company to disclose such gifts.The ulterior motive is to make it easier to force companies to stop donating to right-leaning groups like the Chamber in favor of the left’s lobbies.
On Wall Street, firms like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan are now targeted by the activist unions such as the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees on a number of measures, including demands to separate the firms’ chairman and CEO jobs. It’s all under the guise of “good corporate governance,” but what they really want is a larger say in the firm’s corporate affairs.
Wall Street went big for Mitt Romney last year, spending money that nearly cost the left’s patron saint his job; anything that can neuter corporate spending on politics is key to the lefty agenda — no matter how many feel-good interviews Blankfein gives to gullible reporters.
And of course, ever since the 2008 financial crisis, Goldman and Blankfein have been the left’s (and President Obama’s) favorite whipping boys for all that is wrong about our economic system. And they’ve had lots of material to work with, given Goldman’s behavior of sometimes screwing its clients on the way to make a quick buck, even while taking all that bailout money.
So it’s understandable why Blankfein might now be looking to kiss up to the left. But the question he should be asking as CEO is whether gay marriage is just the first step — and if the next is to bow to a broader agenda that’s bad news for his shareholders.
Charles Gasparino is a Fox Business Network senior correspondent.