Lloyd Blankfein is the CEO of Goldman Sachs and has recently been certified as a billionaire by the American business press. Blankfein holds over 7,200 times more wealth than the typical American family in his age bracket of 55-64 years old. The document outlines how Goldman Sachs, led by Blankfein, used financial swaps to help mask Greece's debt crisis in 2001, earning large fees, but ultimately making Greece's fiscal problems much worse and leading to high unemployment and austerity measures in Greece in 2015. Critics argue Blankfein's performance and decisions at Goldman have had devastating impacts worldwide, including on the people of Greece.

1. America’s business press has just certified Lloyd Blankfein, the 60-year-old CEO of
Wall Street’s Goldman Sachs, as the nation’s newest billionaire. Blankfein holds
over 7,200 times more wealth than the typical U.S. family in his age bracket.
Wall Street Makes a Banker Billionaire
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Sources: Goldman Sachs Doesn’t Have Clean Hands in Greece, Wall Street on Parade,
June 30, 2015; How Goldman Sachs Profited From the Greek Debt Crisis, Nation, July 17,
2015; Wall St pay tied to performance, AFR, July 28, 2013. Noun Project: E. Boatman.
$1,200,000,000
$165,900
Net worth, Lloyd Blankfein
Net worth, median family, 55-64
Blankfein owes his wealth to his compensation at Goldman
Sachs. Looking back on his decades at Goldman, he credits
that generous compensation to his job performance.
“In Wall Street generally, but
in Goldman specifically,
remuneration, compensation
was always, always tied
to performance.”
Lloyd Blankfein
And Blankfein has certainly performed. His decisions have helped Goldman shares
jump 298 percent since the firm started trading on Wall Street in 1999.
Unfortunately, people worldwide are still living with the devastation that
Blankfein’s performance has created — and no people more so than the Greeks.
To enter the
Eurozone in 2001,
a deeply indebted
Greece needs to
mask its shaky
fiscal status.
A Lloyd Blankfein-run
Goldman division uses
financial “swaps” to mask
Greece’s current debt —
and stick Greece with
much higher future debt.
Goldman grabs $793
million in fees for cutting
the deal, then helps
speculators bet against
Greece. By 2015, Greece
has cratered fiscally.
European bankers have now
forced upon Greece an
austerity that has left 25
percent of Greeks jobless
and cut pensions 60 percent.
The Crisis The ‘Rescue’ The Windfalls
Goldman isn’t just playing games in Greece: 40
percent of the water bills Detroiters
now pay go to retire the $547 million
in penalties Detroit had to pay banks like
Goldman to terminate Greek-like financial swaps.
Originally published in the August issue of Too Much, the Institute for Policy Studies
newsletter on excess and inequality. Subscribe at www.toomuchonline.org.