Friday, July 01, 2011 5:34:05 AM
Goldman to Embark on Hiring Spree in Singapore
[embedded video]
By Charlie Gasparino
Published June 27, 2011
FOXBusiness
As Goldman Sachs (GS) plans major job cuts in the United States, the firm is planning to expand overseas with a major hiring spree in Singapore and taking the unusual step of alerting Congress before even it's widely known to its own shareholders, the FOX Business Network has learned.
Goldman is so concerned about the potential for criticism that the firm’s representatives have been alerting staffers of lawmakers in Washington of the hiring spree in recent weeks as a way to mollify any concerns they may have about previously undisclosed plans to add 1,000 jobs to the firm’s Singapore office, according to people in Washington with direct knowledge if the matter. Goldman is concerned about criticism because it is adding those jobs while it is planning what could be a significant retrenchment in its U.S. workforce, these people say.
With profits coming under pressure in the U.S., Goldman appears to be launching possibly the most aggressive effort among the big banks to expand operations overseas where the business climate is more favorable, analysts say. The firm is betting that if it can clamp down on any negative publicity by alerting Congressional leaders of the move first, it can continue to move jobs in higher growth areas globally, while it cuts jobs and slashes expenses in its lower-growth areas, such as its U.S. operations, people with knowledge of the matter say.
The jobs in Singapore are likely to be “high-paying, skilled positions in sales and investment banking,” the same types that are likely to be cut in the firm’s domestic operations, according to one person with knowledge of the matter. This person added that the firm has recently briefed people in Washington about the new overseas jobs because it “is afraid of the fallout” as it plans to slash $1 billion in costs over the next year — a move that will mean a significant, though still undetermined number of layoffs across its operations, though people close to the firm expect the biggest hit to come from the US. Goldman also plans a much smaller expansion in its Brazil unit and in India.
Goldman has good reason to worry about the fallout. The firm has faced more than two years of intense media scrutiny, stiff criticism from lawmakers in Washington, and regulatory probes leading to big fines over its business practices. Goldman’s chief executive Lloyd Blankfein has been a fixture at government hearings involving Wall Street activities, including those that led up to the 2008 financial collapse. US Senator Carl Levin has referred a report from his investigative committee to the U.S. Justice Department over some of the firm’s questionable deal making, and whether Blankfein had perjured himself during his testimony.
A spokesman for Goldman says neither the firm nor Blankfein did anything wrong.
“We’re a global business and we manage headcount in a way which most closely reflects the needs of our clients and where we see opportunities to serve our shareholders most effectively,” the spokesman said.
With or without the bad press of firing people here while hiring overseas, Goldman’s decision to expanding outside the US underscores the harsh reality of the current Wall Street business environment. Major banks are shifting jobs to foreign countries as a slowdown in business and increased regulatory burdens are squeezing profits from their domestic operations.
Lower trading volumes among US investors account for some of the earnings shortfall, of course. Less buying and selling of stocks means lower profits at the big banks.
But another major source of trouble for banks and investment firms is the new regulatory environment. Firms like Goldman have to conform to a plethora of new and costly regulations that came as a result of the 2008 financial collapse, and the massive government bailout of the big financial firms that followed.
Those regulations, found primarily in the Dodd/Frank financial reform bill sponsored by former Senate banking committee chairman Chris Dodd, and his counterpart in the House, Congressman Barney Frank, have forced banks to hold higher capital reserves to protect against losses, and also forced them to exit some lucrative businesses like proprietary trading.
The limits on trading have hit Goldman particularly hard since the firm had made fat profits from using its own capital to take risk and trade securities in various markets, even as the same types of activities led to the firm’s near-death experience in 2008. Shares of Goldman Sachs have fallen around 25% since the beginning of the year as investors have digested what the new rules might mean to Goldman and the rest of Wall Street’s bottom lines.
©2011 FOX News Network, LLC
http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2011/06/27/goldman-to-embark-on-hiring-spree-in-singapore/
===
Goldman Sacks the U.S.
By Dan Bischoff | June 28, 2011
Goldman Sachs (GS) is quietly alerting [ http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2011/06/27/goldman-to-embark-on-hiring-spree-in-singapore/ (above)] Washington politicians of its plan to fire employees in New York and a few other locations in order to hire 1,000 new workers in Singapore and expand its operations in Brazil and India. Why? Because it fears a backlash in the U.S. By “backlash,” Goldman apparently means people seeing analogies to the way a parasite leaves when it has killed its host.
“We’re a global business and we manage headcount in a way which most closely reflects the needs of our clients and where we see opportunties to serve our shareholders most effectively,” a Goldman spokesman said. Most of the positions lost in New York will be high-paying, skilled positions in sales and investment banking.
Of course, the firm’s commitment to the burgeoning businesses of Asia is obvious. Last March, just after the Fukushima nuclear plant began showering Tokyo with radioactive particles (residents were breathing in as many as ten hot particles a day in April), Goldman sent four executives to its offices there to tell employees that anyone who tried to relocate would lose [ http://www.cnbc.com/id/42304574/Goldman_Sachs_Employees_Told_Not_to_Leave_Japan ] their job.
Run, Blankfein, run!
But there are other reasons besides the still-expanding business climate in Asia for Goldman’s decision. Chairman Lloyd Blankfein has become the poster child of the financial crisis in the U.S., a regular at congressional hearings and a kind of Nosferatu for movies made about the capitalist collapse, like Inside Job.
The firm was forced to pay the largest fine [ http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2010/2010-123.htm ] in SEC history last year — $550 million — to settle charges that it had misled investors in a subprime mortgage CDO deal, as well as reform its business practices here. Sen. Carl Levin just forwarded a damning report that included Goldman’s role in the crisis to the Justice Department, with a specific query about whether Blankfein had committed perjury [ http://www.efinancialnews.com/story/2011-06-08/crime-punishment-goldman ] before his committee. Goldman’s stock is down by 25% over the past year.
Oh, and then there’s that whole “vampire squid [ http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-great-american-bubble-machine-20100405 ]” thing.
Getting while the getting is good
Goldman says it needs to cut $1 billion in costs in order to face expected new expenses. The underlying problem is almost certainly the increasing capital reserve requirements and new regulations about to take effect in the U.S., particularly those regarding proprietary trading [ http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-15/goldman-said-to-close-proprietary-trading-desk-to-comply-with-volcker-rule.html ].
Goldman’s high frequency trading [ http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/business/24trading.html ] operations came under SEC review over two years ago; since that time, the volume of trading in American and European economies has fallen sharply, limiting the amount of money banks can make here. And, as I pointed out yesterday, QE2 is coming to an end June 30. No more queueing at the Fed discount window for Goldman.
Of course, I’m kidding about that. Nobody from Goldman Sachs has ever had to stand in a queue [ http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/item_VddIjS4IenJXTwP5ihUg1M ] anywhere, at any time.
Dan Bischoff writes about art for the Star-Ledger in New Jersey; he was European editor for World Business and National Affairs editor for the Village Voice.
© 2011 CBS Interactive
http://www.bnet.com/blog/financial-business/goldman-sacks-the-us/14543 [no comments yet]
===
(linked in):
from earlier this string, in particular http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=63896861 (and http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=64802378 ), and http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=63799034
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=56694192 and preceding
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=49839016 and preceding and following
*
and to tie in to this string -- (linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=64712121 and preceding and following
[embedded video]
By Charlie Gasparino
Published June 27, 2011
FOXBusiness
As Goldman Sachs (GS) plans major job cuts in the United States, the firm is planning to expand overseas with a major hiring spree in Singapore and taking the unusual step of alerting Congress before even it's widely known to its own shareholders, the FOX Business Network has learned.
Goldman is so concerned about the potential for criticism that the firm’s representatives have been alerting staffers of lawmakers in Washington of the hiring spree in recent weeks as a way to mollify any concerns they may have about previously undisclosed plans to add 1,000 jobs to the firm’s Singapore office, according to people in Washington with direct knowledge if the matter. Goldman is concerned about criticism because it is adding those jobs while it is planning what could be a significant retrenchment in its U.S. workforce, these people say.
With profits coming under pressure in the U.S., Goldman appears to be launching possibly the most aggressive effort among the big banks to expand operations overseas where the business climate is more favorable, analysts say. The firm is betting that if it can clamp down on any negative publicity by alerting Congressional leaders of the move first, it can continue to move jobs in higher growth areas globally, while it cuts jobs and slashes expenses in its lower-growth areas, such as its U.S. operations, people with knowledge of the matter say.
The jobs in Singapore are likely to be “high-paying, skilled positions in sales and investment banking,” the same types that are likely to be cut in the firm’s domestic operations, according to one person with knowledge of the matter. This person added that the firm has recently briefed people in Washington about the new overseas jobs because it “is afraid of the fallout” as it plans to slash $1 billion in costs over the next year — a move that will mean a significant, though still undetermined number of layoffs across its operations, though people close to the firm expect the biggest hit to come from the US. Goldman also plans a much smaller expansion in its Brazil unit and in India.
Goldman has good reason to worry about the fallout. The firm has faced more than two years of intense media scrutiny, stiff criticism from lawmakers in Washington, and regulatory probes leading to big fines over its business practices. Goldman’s chief executive Lloyd Blankfein has been a fixture at government hearings involving Wall Street activities, including those that led up to the 2008 financial collapse. US Senator Carl Levin has referred a report from his investigative committee to the U.S. Justice Department over some of the firm’s questionable deal making, and whether Blankfein had perjured himself during his testimony.
A spokesman for Goldman says neither the firm nor Blankfein did anything wrong.
“We’re a global business and we manage headcount in a way which most closely reflects the needs of our clients and where we see opportunities to serve our shareholders most effectively,” the spokesman said.
With or without the bad press of firing people here while hiring overseas, Goldman’s decision to expanding outside the US underscores the harsh reality of the current Wall Street business environment. Major banks are shifting jobs to foreign countries as a slowdown in business and increased regulatory burdens are squeezing profits from their domestic operations.
Lower trading volumes among US investors account for some of the earnings shortfall, of course. Less buying and selling of stocks means lower profits at the big banks.
But another major source of trouble for banks and investment firms is the new regulatory environment. Firms like Goldman have to conform to a plethora of new and costly regulations that came as a result of the 2008 financial collapse, and the massive government bailout of the big financial firms that followed.
Those regulations, found primarily in the Dodd/Frank financial reform bill sponsored by former Senate banking committee chairman Chris Dodd, and his counterpart in the House, Congressman Barney Frank, have forced banks to hold higher capital reserves to protect against losses, and also forced them to exit some lucrative businesses like proprietary trading.
The limits on trading have hit Goldman particularly hard since the firm had made fat profits from using its own capital to take risk and trade securities in various markets, even as the same types of activities led to the firm’s near-death experience in 2008. Shares of Goldman Sachs have fallen around 25% since the beginning of the year as investors have digested what the new rules might mean to Goldman and the rest of Wall Street’s bottom lines.
©2011 FOX News Network, LLC
http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2011/06/27/goldman-to-embark-on-hiring-spree-in-singapore/
===
Goldman Sacks the U.S.
By Dan Bischoff | June 28, 2011
Goldman Sachs (GS) is quietly alerting [ http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2011/06/27/goldman-to-embark-on-hiring-spree-in-singapore/ (above)] Washington politicians of its plan to fire employees in New York and a few other locations in order to hire 1,000 new workers in Singapore and expand its operations in Brazil and India. Why? Because it fears a backlash in the U.S. By “backlash,” Goldman apparently means people seeing analogies to the way a parasite leaves when it has killed its host.
“We’re a global business and we manage headcount in a way which most closely reflects the needs of our clients and where we see opportunties to serve our shareholders most effectively,” a Goldman spokesman said. Most of the positions lost in New York will be high-paying, skilled positions in sales and investment banking.
Of course, the firm’s commitment to the burgeoning businesses of Asia is obvious. Last March, just after the Fukushima nuclear plant began showering Tokyo with radioactive particles (residents were breathing in as many as ten hot particles a day in April), Goldman sent four executives to its offices there to tell employees that anyone who tried to relocate would lose [ http://www.cnbc.com/id/42304574/Goldman_Sachs_Employees_Told_Not_to_Leave_Japan ] their job.
Run, Blankfein, run!
But there are other reasons besides the still-expanding business climate in Asia for Goldman’s decision. Chairman Lloyd Blankfein has become the poster child of the financial crisis in the U.S., a regular at congressional hearings and a kind of Nosferatu for movies made about the capitalist collapse, like Inside Job.
The firm was forced to pay the largest fine [ http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2010/2010-123.htm ] in SEC history last year — $550 million — to settle charges that it had misled investors in a subprime mortgage CDO deal, as well as reform its business practices here. Sen. Carl Levin just forwarded a damning report that included Goldman’s role in the crisis to the Justice Department, with a specific query about whether Blankfein had committed perjury [ http://www.efinancialnews.com/story/2011-06-08/crime-punishment-goldman ] before his committee. Goldman’s stock is down by 25% over the past year.
Oh, and then there’s that whole “vampire squid [ http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-great-american-bubble-machine-20100405 ]” thing.
Getting while the getting is good
Goldman says it needs to cut $1 billion in costs in order to face expected new expenses. The underlying problem is almost certainly the increasing capital reserve requirements and new regulations about to take effect in the U.S., particularly those regarding proprietary trading [ http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-15/goldman-said-to-close-proprietary-trading-desk-to-comply-with-volcker-rule.html ].
Goldman’s high frequency trading [ http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/business/24trading.html ] operations came under SEC review over two years ago; since that time, the volume of trading in American and European economies has fallen sharply, limiting the amount of money banks can make here. And, as I pointed out yesterday, QE2 is coming to an end June 30. No more queueing at the Fed discount window for Goldman.
Of course, I’m kidding about that. Nobody from Goldman Sachs has ever had to stand in a queue [ http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/item_VddIjS4IenJXTwP5ihUg1M ] anywhere, at any time.
Dan Bischoff writes about art for the Star-Ledger in New Jersey; he was European editor for World Business and National Affairs editor for the Village Voice.
© 2011 CBS Interactive
http://www.bnet.com/blog/financial-business/goldman-sacks-the-us/14543 [no comments yet]
===
(linked in):
from earlier this string, in particular http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=63896861 (and http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=64802378 ), and http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=63799034
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=56694192 and preceding
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=49839016 and preceding and following
*
and to tie in to this string -- (linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=64712121 and preceding and following
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