JP Morgan chief Jamie Dimon continues to offer $11 billion or more to the vast Obama regulatory apparatus that seems intent on bringing down both him and his bank, but there may be a more simple solution to his dilemma: Act more like Lloyd.
Lloyd Blankfein, that is. But the shift has gone beyond the new facial hair the Goldman Sachs chief has adopted (though it helps that he now looks a bit hipsteresque).
Blankfein’s transformation is nothing short of remarkable. Not so long ago, he was the ultimate greedy fat cat, with a gazillion-dollar target on his head; now he’s the darling of the Obama White House.
This tells you how the president’s Wall Street police like their bank honchos: quiet and malleable, unless you’re publicly supporting left-leaning causes and pounding the table for Obamanomics.
That’s how Blankfein’s been behaving in recent years, after the heat from various probes of Goldman’s conduct during the financial crisis grew to such a level that he himself hinted he might step down as the bank’s chief.
Yes, Goldman folks gave a ton to Mitt Romney’s campaign last year, but I’m told this wasn’t Blankfein but some partners at the bank who’d grown sick of Obama’s left-wing economic agenda. (Anyway, the Goldman community gave big when Obama really needed it in 2008 — more than any other corporate donor except the lefty University of California. Now friends say Blankfein’s telling them privately that he’s a big supporter of Hillary Clinton for 2016 president.)
The biggest change came last year, when Blankfein hired a new PR chief — Jake Siewert, who’d been a senior adviser to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.
Siewert had worked in the Clinton administration, too, then flacked for Alcoa in the Bush years. And he has a New York connection: His wife, Christine Anderson, was a mouthpiece for Eliot Spitzer before Gov. Socks had to quit amid that prostitution scandal.
Siewert’s morphing of his boss went far beyond the new whiskers. Blankfein had always been quietly liberal, albeit with a big limousine. But he started speaking out.
Even as Dimon earned the administration’s enmity by accurately ridiculing Obama’s new bank regulations as “down-right idiotic” because they hurt the economy, Blankfein came out for left-leaning social causes such as gay marriage.
He’s served as an administration mouthpiece. For example, he showed up at the White House recently to urge action to end the government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling — importantly, parroting the Obama line that “we shouldn’t be doing anything that hurts the recovery,” i.e. pruning government programs or even thinking about reducing the massive federal debt. (Dimon was also at the meeting, but said almost nothing.)
Now Blankfein’s even courting one of the most radical politicians in the country, Mayor-in-Waiting Bill de Blasio. Blankfein with other business leaders had a face-to-face with Comrade Bill last week.
I’m sure de Blasio’s endless and nonsensical class warfare tirades about life in New York City, which in reality does more for poor people than any other US city, turned the Goldman boss’s stomach. After all, Blankfein’s bankers and traders (along with the rest of Wall Street) hand over huge chunks of their paychecks so the city can spend all that money.
But I’m told Blankfein stayed quiet during the de Blasio meeting — and, as a result, gave credibility to de Blasio’s big Dickensian lie about New York, which has him 50 points up in the polls.
But what might be bad for New York City just might be good for Blankfein and Goldman Sachs — since de Blasio’s plan to expand the New York City welfare state even further will mean issuing more debt, which Goldman will want to underwrite.
Anyway, embracing the left means fewer investigations and better CEO job security, plus invites to the White House.
You see, Jamie — there is a way out.
Charles Gasparino is a Fox Business Network senior correspondent.