Lloyd Blankfein: unpretentious and genial chief of Goldman Sachs

Lloyd Blankfein went from an unassuming childhood in the Bronx and Brooklyn to 'the pinnacle of American capitalism' as head of Goldman Sachs. Now, after the bank was hit with faud charges by the SEC, he is fighting to save his job.

A few months ago, a Wall Street Journal story quoted an unnamed London-based investment banker who said "he'd bet a bunch of people at Davos a few million pounds that Lloyd Blankfein would be out as CEO of Goldman Sachs within two years", says Bess Levin on Dealbreaker.com. Goldman condemned the story as "effluent". But as the furore around the fraud charges from the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) builds, the odds on the bet coming good must have shortened.

For Blankfein, the case marks the climax of a baffling year. Instead of winning plaudits for its post-crisis recovery, Goldman's reputation has become as toxic as the credit default swaps it once traded. Blankfein, who prides himself on his unpretentious style (there are no $5,000 wastepaper bins in his office), seems perplexed. "With us, bizarrely, the view seems to be: what's good is bad and what's bad is good," he told Fortune.

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