Goldman bankers tool up with handguns - allegedly

We hear from no less a source than a Bloomberg news columnist that the higher-ups at Goldman Sachs are loading up on pistol permits for fear of a popular uprising against God's own bankers.

Now, the 'evidence' for this is anecdotal in the extreme.

“I just wrote my first reference for a gun permit,” said a friend, who told me of swearing to the good character of a Goldman Sachs Group Inc banker who applied to the local police for a permit to buy a pistol. The banker had told this friend of mine that senior Goldman people have loaded up on firearms and are now equipped to defend themselves if there is a populist uprising against the bank.

I called Goldman Sachs spokesman Lucas van Praag to ask whether it’s true that Goldman partners feel they need handguns to protect themselves from the angry proletariat. He didn’t call me back. The New York Police Department has told me that “as a preliminary matter” it believes some of the bankers I inquired about do have pistol permits. The NYPD also said it will be a while before it can name names.

I had to re-read this twice and then double-check the URL to make sure that I hadn't chanced upon a classic Onion spoof by mistake.

But no. It seems that Goldman has sunk so far in public esteem that even reputable news outlets like Bloomberg will use such flimsy bar-room chat as an excuse for a spot of pitchfork-prodding.

The disclaimer in the footnote is not that surprising, but the identity of the columnist is a bit of a shocker:

Alice Schroeder, author of “The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life” and a former managing director at Morgan Stanley, is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.