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Goldman Sachs staff ‘arm themselves against public’
Bloomberg columnist Alice Schroeder claims senior bankers are seeking pistol permits
Writer Alice Schroeder, a respected columnist for Bloomberg News and bestselling biographer of Warren Buffett (with whom she is photographed above), has claimed that senior members of the Goldman Sachs bank in New York have begun to arm themselves in fear of a popular uprising against bankers.
In a column posted yesterday, Schroeder quoted a friend saying: "I just wrote my first reference for a gun permit." The friend went on to explain that they had sworn to the good character of a Goldman Sachs banker who had applied to the police for a pistol permit.
The banker had told Schroeder's friend that senior Goldman staffers had "loaded up on firearms and are now equipped to defend themselves if there is a populist uprising against the bank".
Schroeder said that when she rang the bank's spokesman Lucas van Praag for a comment "to ask whether it's true that Goldman partners feel they need handguns to protect themselves from the angry proletariat" he never returned her call.
However, the NYPD told her that "as a preliminary matter" the police believed that some of the bankers Schroeder inquired about did indeed have pistol permits. The police told her it would be "a while" before they could confirm names.
If Schroeder were a less distinguished journalist, her story might be taken less seriously. But she is a highly respected figure in Wall Street circles was was chosen by BusinessWeek alongside Ben Bernanke and Hillary Clinton as one of the "People to Watch in 2008".
She turned to journalism after working as an insurance analyst at Morgan Stanley and is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life, published a year ago.
The Snowball was also shortlisted for the 2008 Business Book of the Year Award - sponsored by the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs. ·
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I also disagree with McGowan. Shootin' is too good for em'. Tar, feathers, oak tree and rope would work though. Poisonby, you won't like the high taxes in Sve-den.
Obviously they have guilty consciences, otherwise why would they expect an uprising against them?
If they were to show they are playing by the same rules as non-bank people, rather than taking every opportunity to rip us off, with some pathetic claim about having earned multi million dollar/pound bonuses, maybe they'd have less reason to fear!
No-one, but no-one, earns multi million dollar/pound bonuses!
I must admit, however, that in a supposedly 'civilized' society (can we call the US that?) they shouldn't have to fear being attacked with guns.
@Neil McGowan: "I would not condemn those who followed such a course." You wouldn't condemn someone for shooting someone else? This seems in some way reasonable to you? God almighty, what did we do to attract these nutcases? There's nothing we can do: I'm going to live in Sweden...
Frankly it only surprises me that there have been so few cases of a frustrated public - deprived of justice and redress against criminals and thugs - seeking natural justice independently of a discredited legal system. I would not condemn those who followed such a course.