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JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon is telling investors to batten down the hatches, as the Ukraine war and the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy are potentially creating an economic hurricane.

Dimon, speaking at a financial conference sponsored by AllianceBernstein, said, “It’s a hurricane. Right now, it’s kind of sunny, things are doing fine, everyone thinks the Fed can handle this,” according to Bloomberg.

However, “That hurricane is right out there, down the road, coming our way,” he added. “We just don’t know if it’s a minor one or Superstorm Sandy or Andrew or something like that. You better brace yourself.”

Dimon’s warning echoed one made earlier by former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, who told CBS talk show Face the Nation last month that there is a “very, very high risk” factor for an economic recession.

The Federal Reserve is shedding nearly 9 trillion in bond holdings,...

As inflation and interest rates rise, there is a “very, very high risk” factor for an economic recession. That’s according to former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, who addressed the issue Sunday on CBS talk show Face The Nation.

Can it be avoided? “There’s a path. It’s a narrow path,” said Blankfein, who is retired from Goldman Sachs, but still holds the title of senior chairman.

“But I think the Fed has very powerful tools. It’s hard to finely tune them, and it’s hard to see the effects of them quickly enough to alter it, but I think they’re responding well. It’s definitely a risk.”

Blankfein’s remarks come on the heels of similar sentiments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who said last week that the Fed’s strategy of raising interest rates will “include some pain.”

“We fully understand and appreciate how painful inflation is,...

Updated, April 22: Florida governor Ron DeSantis has signed legislation that removes the special district covering Walt Disney World from the Walt Disney Company. The move is expected to have a financial impact on Florida residents to compensate for the district’s debts. At a lectern, DeSantis claimed that Disney aimed to “inject sexuality into the programming that is provided to our youngest kids.”

“I’m just not comfortable having that type of agenda get special treatment in my state,” he said. “I just can’t do it.”

He added, “We have everything thought out. Don’t let anyone tell you that Disney is going to get a tax cut out of this. They are going to pay more taxes as a result of this.”

Earlier, Published April 21: Following its flip-flopping over the “Don’t Say Gay” law, the Walt Disney Company is set to lose its Florida footing...

Updated, Friday, 12:33 Pm Pt: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation Friday that strips Disney of a special district that covers Walt Disney World, after the company came out publicly against the state’s parental rights law.

It’s unclear what the ultimate financial impact will be on Disney, but Democrats have warned that dissolving the Reedy Creek Improvement District could leave Florida’s Orange or Osceola counties to pay the district’s existing debts.

DeSantis, standing at a lectern with the message “Freedom from Indoctrination,” accused Disney of pushing an LGBTQ agenda. DeSantis claimed the company had an “intentional agenda” to “inject sexuality into the programming that is provided to our youngest kids.”

He was clear that was the reason that he was repealing the special district.

“I’m just not comfortable having that type of agenda get special treatment in my state,” he said. “I just can’t do it.

CNN interacts with most of its viewers via TV screen or mobile device. In weeks to come, however, the news outlet hopes to start engaging its audience at state fairs and local festivals.

The AT&T-owned news network plans new extensions for the “Citizen by CNN” forum it launched last year that aims to spur viewers to develop a more active relationship with politics. In October of 2018, CNN debuted an invite-only “Citizen” conference in New York that included interviews with White House adviser Jared Kusher, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi along with remarks from former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. That event will take place once again on October 24, but it won’t take another year to lapse before it returns.

CNN is planning to bring a series of “experiences” to various parts of the nation throughout the 2020 campaign. “We see an opportunity to harness the energy around the...

Goldman Sachs, which has survived and thrived despite countless scandals over the years, may have finally stepped in a pile of trouble too deep to escape.

There’s even a Donald Trump angle to this latest great financial mess, but the outlines of that subplot – in a case that has countless – remains vague. The bank itself is in the most immediate danger.

The company’s stock rallied Thursday to close at 165, stopping a five-day slide in which the firm lost almost 12 percent of its market value. The company is down 35 percent for the year,...

FX has rounded out the cast as production begins on Fosse/Verdon (new official title), its high-profile eight-episode limited drama series starring Oscar winner Sam Rockwell and Oscar nominee Michelle Williams in the title roles, from award-winning producers Thomas Kail, Steven Levenson, Lin Manuel-Miranda and Joel Fields, FX Television Studios and FX Productions. Production on the series is currently underway in New York City ahead of its spring 2019 premiere on FX.

Joining previously announced Rockwell and Williams as series regulars are Tony winner Norbert Leo Butz (Bloodline) as Paddy Chayefsky and Margaret Qualley (Novitiate) as Ann Reinking. Additional recurring cast includes Evan Handler (The People v. O.J. Simpson) as Hal Prince; Aya Cash (You’re The Worst) as Joan Simon; Nate Corddry (For All Mankind) as Neil Simon; Susan Misner (Jack Ryan) as Joan McCracken; Bianca Marroquin (Chicago) as Chita Rivera; Kelli Barrett (The Punisher) as Liza Minnelli; Rick Holmes...

Ten years ago, on Saturday, September 13th, 2008, the world was about to end.

The New York Federal Reserve was a zoo. Imagine Nasa headquarters on the day a giant asteroid careens into the atmosphere. That was the New York Fed: all hands on deck, peak human panic.

The crowd included future Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, then-Treasury Secretary (and former Goldman Sachs CEO) Hank Paulson, the representatives of multiple regulatory offices, and the CEOs of virtually every major bank in New York, each toting armies of bean counters and bankers.

The asteroid metaphor fit.

Hillary Clinton’s race to the White House has hit a bump in its final stretch with WikiLeaks’ latest email dumps.

Over the past week, the anti-secrecy organization has rolled out more than 12,000 internal emails illegally obtained by hackers from the private account of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.

Here are the five biggest revelations from the email dumps:

1. Apparent transcripts of Clinton’s paid speeches to Goldman Sachs (We say ‘apparent’ because the Clinton campaign will not authenticate the documents, suggesting some could be fakes planted by the hackers) revealed she was on friendly terms with Wall Street executives.

Our annual Out Of Whack executive pay analysis already told you about the eye-popping compensation packages that Big Media CEOs made last year. But AP adds more context to the story this morning by showing that the amounts not only are high in absolute terms, they’re also outsized in comparison with the rest of corporate America. Six of the country’s 10 highest-paid CEOs come from media: CBS’ Les Moonves (No. 2, $65.6M), Viacom’s Philippe Dauman (No. 5, $37.2M), Disney’s Bob Iger (No. 7, $34.3M), Discovery’s David Zaslav (No. 8, $33.3M), Time Warner’s Jeff Bewkes (No. 9, $32.5M), and Comcast’s Brian Roberts (No. 10, $31.4M). What’s interesting in the AP story, based on data from corporate proxies compiled by research firm Equilar, is how media chiefs compare with CEOs at companies that have far more impact on the economy. For example, ExxonMobil’s Rex Tillerson came in at No. 12 with $28.1M,...

A version of this story first appeared in the May 2 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. All the numbers have yet to be crunched, but one thing is certain: CBS Corp. president and CEO Leslie Moonves' $66.9 million compensation in 2013 will make him the best-paid CEO in American media and put him among the world's highest-paid executives in any industry. By comparison, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein made $20 million in 2013, and Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent made $18.2 million despite a market cap of $111 billion that dwarfs CBS' $35 billion. Whether

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In his new film Java Heat, Kellan Lutz does bare-chested pull-ups from the ceiling, no-feet pushups, then decides to get a Thai massage, baring his perfectly sculpted behind in these Nsfw shots. Sadly, when he flips over, there's a man blocking the shot just perfectly. The director should be fired.

In what has to be the funniest news to come out of Vatican City in a while, the Vatican bought a share in a giant Roman apartment block that just happens to house the largest gay men's sauna in Europe. The priests will have a short commute.

Third place The X Factor finalist Christopher Maloney has come out as gay. ”Do you know what, I’m going to admit it – yeah. Honestly, I’ve never denied it or anything like that. It’s just that with the show it was always an inappropriate time or people just asked inappropriate questions.

In the words of his America’s Got Talent co-judge Howie Mandel, radio personality Howard Stern’s lawsuit against SiriusXM is a decisive “no deal.”

The host of the eponymous Howard Stern Show was seeking $300 million from his employer SiriusXM, claiming that subscribers he attracted to both the Xm and Sirius divisions contributed to his performance-based stock awards, The Smoking Gun reports. Judge Barbara Kapnick, however, ruled that since Stern’s contract only included awards for Sirius subscribers, not those of Xm, he fell short of the number of listeners the contract required him to bring in and therefore is not entitled to the stock awards.

Stern was seeking four stock awards valued at $75 million each, which dwarfs even the stock bonuses seen on Wall Street. Last year, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon took home $17 million worth of stock and other options, while his Goldman Sachs counterpart Lloyd Blankfein received $10.7 million in stock awards.

Stephen Colbert couldn't believe his eyes when he read the now-infamous New York Times op-ed "Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs," in which ex-employee Greg Smith offered a blistering takedown of the investment firm. Where Colbert comes from, you simply don't say such things about your boss, no matter how "toxic and destructive" you might find it.

Saying he was "disgusted" by the op-ed that has caused waves in financial sectors, he defended Goldman Sachs against the claim that they don't spend any time thinking about clients' needs, focusing only on their own profits. "Time is money! And they don't want to waste their clients' money by spending time thinking about them."

But Colbert was most outraged by Smith's attack on the often-attacked Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein, who Smith blames for the current atmosphere of the company. Colbert especially noted Blankfein's claim that the bank is "doing God's work," which Colbert saw no problem with.

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein is lending his support to gay rights. On Monday, Blankfein became the first major CEO to appear in an ad for the Americans for Marriage Equality campaign, voicing his support of same-sex marriage. Blankfein is the 12th person to appear in the campaign, joining sports stars Sean Avery and Scott Fujita, actors John Leguizamo, Josh Charles, Mo’Nique and Aisha Tyler, Senator Al Franken and New York Giants owner Steve Tish. Video: Best (and Worst) Super Bowl Commercials 2012 “America's corporations learned long ago that equality is just good business and is the right thing

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The "L.A. Confidential"-inspired promo for last night's episode promised gunshots and intrigue, but viewers soon discovered that Upper East Siders were more likely to be dodging Blair's morning sickness than ricocheting bullets.

That's right, after Blair tried to hijack Dorota's Obgyn appointment -- asking when they could determine the baby's father as Dorota has "had a few one night stands with the staff of our building" -- Blair confessed that she is with child.

Though, I'm not going to be convinced of the pregnancy until I see Blair pee on a stick. Why can't she just be discovering a gluten allergy? Not only would it explain the nausea (see our slideshow of our favorite Blair nauseous faces below) but it's so trendy among 20-somethings!

Less trendy: being just shy of a teen-mom on the Upper East Side. Unless you're Dorota, who reacts to the news by squealing, "We are like sisters.

Epa/Justin Lane Credit: European Pressphoto Agency People walk past construction at the site of the World Trade Center site in New York, New York, USA, on 09 September 2011. Sunday will mark the ten year anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Even beyond the Freedom Tower and new Trade Center buildings rising out of the ground, Lower Manhattan has changed dramatically since September 11. The block in front of the Stock Exchange is emptier, but Wall Street is more crowded. While bollards and bomb-proofing schemes abound,...

President Obama's former ambassador to China declared Tuesday he'll announce his candidacy against his old boss "a week from today." The Daily Beast's McKay Coppins reports from the event. Plus, read about the Mormon moment in this week's issue of Newsweek.

Jon Huntsman, Jr. told a VIP crowd of journalists, diplomats, and CEOs Tuesday afternoon that he plans to announce his presidential candidacy in one week, joking that "since we're in selected company and there aren't many people listening in" he could safely declare his intentions.

Related story on The Daily Beast: Why Obama's Still Untouchable in 2012

Huntsman, a moderate Republican who is fluent in Mandarin, is expected to announce his candidacy at Liberty State Park in New Jersey on June 21. His campaign will be based in Florida.

Tuesday's event was a Thomson Reuters luncheon featuring a discussion about the rising power of China, between Huntsman-who served as U.

A massive new history of Goldman Sachs fails to ask serious, important questions about the firm, says Nomi Prins-and just continues a troubling trend of adulation.

I started at Goldman Sachs after a nine-month interview process. A few months later, I got some advice from a former partner, who then ran the mortgage department: "Don't worry about how much time you spend with clients. If you want to do well here, remember that senior management are your real clients."

Related story on The Daily Beast: The Beginning of History

That's the firm I knew, and unfortunately for all us, seems to be the reporting strategy that William Cohan pursued in churning out his new Goldman history, Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World, that pulls off the seemingly difficult feat of being both incredibly windy and exhausting (nearly 700 pages!) yet completely non-illuminating.

Cohan heavily touts his access to the big boys.

• Announcing the findings of a Senate panel investigating the financial crisis, Senator Carl Levin (D-mi) called Goldman Sachs “a financial snake pit rife with greed, conflicts of interest, and wrongdoing,” adding that C.E.O. Lloyd Blankfein should possibly face perjury charges. [Washington Post] • Speaking of lying under oath, Barry Bonds was found guilty of obstruction of justice in his steroid case, but he will probably get minimal jail time or probation. Those wanting arrogant millionaires to get the message that lying under oath is a big deal will have to wait for the trial of Roger Clemens, against whom the case is much stronger. [Wall Street Journal] • A fascinating revelation from the mafia trial currently underway in New York: “clip” has replaced “whack” as a euphemism for murdering someone on orders. Presumably “fuhgeddaboudit” still means fuhgeddaboudit. [NY Times] • A 30-second advertisement during Oprah’s farewell broadcast is selling for $1 million. Earlier in the season ads had been selling for only $57,400. Also,...

Actors of all kinds, from A-list movie stars and Broadway veterans to up-and-comers, turned up at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City on Valentine’s night to pay tribute to the Naked Angels’ 25th anniversary. The Naked Angels company has been nurturing the careers of theater types and encouraging provocative storytelling since 1986, and the stars showed up in droves to show their appreciation.

The night started out with a very crowded VIP cocktail reception. I spotted Edie Falco catching up with her Sopranos costar and recent Top Chef guest judge Lorraine Bracco — both were gorgeous and looked years younger...

Goldman Sachs partner Richard Kimball Jr. was forced to move to a hotel after the condo board at his $35,000-a-month West Village pad re fused to renew his lease last month following a series of wild parties. As we reported, Kimball infuriated neighbors at 99 Jane St. with loud music and scantily clad models at all hours. Now Page Six Magazine, out on Thursday, reports Kimball is temporarily living out of a hotel, and the condo board has approved the Knicks' Amar'e Stoudemire as its new penthouse tenant. Last year, Goldman Sachs...

E! is going to Washington: The network has nabbed Rob Lowe’s D.C.-set reality series, which follows real-life politicians who are trying to succeed in the capital. Wwjlt? (What Would Josh Lyman Think) [Variety]

Too Big To Fail gets even bigger: HBO has added Sex and the City’s Evan Handler and John Heard to the cast of the TV movie. Heard will play former Lehman Brothers prez Joe Gregory, while Handler will play Goldman Sachs CEO and Chairman Lloyd Blankfein.

Syfy — the same network behind Sharktopus and Dinoshark — will return to semi-normalcy when it airs Sinbad and the...

John Heard and Sex and the City alum Evan Handler have joined the cast of the HBO film Too Big to Fail, while Kathy Baker has boarded the Lifetime drama pilot Against the Wall. Directed by Curtis Hanson, Too Big to Fail dissects the 2008 financial crisis and the power brokers who decided the fate of the world's economy as the system teetered on collapse. Heard will play former Lehman Brothers president Joe Gregory, while Apa-repped Handler will prortray Lloyd Blankfein, CEO and Chairman of Goldman Sachs. They join a star-studded ensemble cast led by William Hurt, James Woods and Paul Giamatti. Against the Wall, from Universal Cable Prods., is a family drama set in Chicago which follows policewoman Abby Kowalski (Rachael Carpani), who causes a rift with her three cop brothers when she decides to join the department’s Internal Affairs division. Baker will play Abby's mother, a Chicago cop's wife,...

On September 15, 2008, one of the most venerable and storied financial institutions in the world, Lehman Brothers, declared bankruptcy. Charles Ferguson smelled a rat. Like he had done with No End in Sight, his 2007 film about the failed U.S. war effort in Iraq, Ferguson set out, in his clear and unblinking manner, to document what actually caused the monumental financial collapse. As was the case in Iraq, not everything was at it seemed during the financial crisis. Ferguson spoke to me about Inside Job, and what he thinks is in store for America, and New York City. Inside Job features footage of the Goldman Sachs congressional testimony in April. CEO Lloyd Blankfein is questioned as to whether or not his firm behaved improperly. He replies, "In the context of market-making, no." Can market-making be squared with morality? Market-making can be, but what...

Every Tuesday on Vf.com, filmmaker Jamie Johnson offers a glimpse into the secret lives of the super-rich. History scrubbed Henry Clay Frick’s reputation. Will it do the same for Goldman Sachs C.E.O. Lloyd Blankfein? These days, it’s pretty easy to hate Goldman Sachs. The firm appears to have made tons of money by betting against the success of the American economy. Its former C.E.O. turned secretary of the treasury played an instrumental role in bailing out Wall Street’s elite firms, which, ironically, were the very same institutions responsible for causing the recession in the first place. And perhaps most vexing of all, the current suit filed by the S.E.C. against the bank for allegedly committing fraud is turning up sensitive documents that expose how Goldman employees arrogantly criticized their less sophisticated clients, and even privately characterized certain of their own investment vehicles as “shitty.

I was pretty surprised when, one night last week, Keith Olbermann ran some unedited, unbleeped Senate testimony about the recent Wall Street disaster that featured evidence from Goldman Sachs internal emails proving that they knew that at least one fund they were selling was not only toxic, it was “a shitty deal.” Senator Carl Levin, among others, used the word shitty repeatedly, and even though Olbermann’s show runs at 8pm on a basic cable channel, there was that word, over and over again, in all its scatalogical glory. But that was nothing to my surprise early yesterday, when one of CNN’s Sunday morning talk shows featured an interview with Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein -- who had also appeared in that “shitty” testimony last week -- and there was the word all over again, unedited, uncensored, full blast. Have Goldman Sachs’s “shitty deals” broken a language barrier on American TV?...

Goodness gracious, “The Other 98%,” an advocacy group protesting the Tea-soaked masses, has descended upon Wall Street this afternoon. (To contextualize the organization within the national political discourse—or, perhaps more accurately, simulacrum thereof—know that on Tax Day, the group “[countered] a Tea Party rally on the National Mall, and [thanked] Obama for the tax cuts granted to 95% of working Americans,” according to a press release.) Anyway, today the Other 98% took to downtown Manhattan and demanded criminal repercussions for Goldman Sachs C.E.O. Lloyd Blankfein, whom they accuse of fraud and breach of contract, illegal gambling, and bribery of public officials. These charges can likely be located on homemade “Wanted” signs, which they brought along.

• Was Apple behind the police raid of the home of the journalist who procured and reported on the iPhone prototype left in a bar? [Yahoo! News] • All 40 Republicans in the Senate voted against allowing debate to begin on the financial-reform bill. Shocker. [Washington Post] • The Republicans were joined in opposition by one Democrat, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, who reportedly flipped when a provision (regarding derivatives) that would have helped Nebraska’s favorite son, Warren Buffett, was removed. Related question: if Buffett thinks derivatives are “financial weapons of mass destruction,” as he famously called them, why does he own so many of them? [Huffington Post] • As Goldman Sachs C.E.O. Lloyd Blankfein goes before the Senate to testify today, Senate investigators have turned up evidence that the bank was engaging in even more shady mortgage-related deals than previously thought. [NY Times] • An appeals court has ruled that a massive sex-discrimination lawsuit filed by female employees of Walmart can go forward.

Today may not be Goldman Sachs’s day either: The Wall Street Journal is reporting that a Goldman director, Rajat Gupta, allegedly “tipped off a hedge-fund billionaire about a $5 billion investment in Goldman by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. before a public announcement of the deal at the height of the 2008 financial crisis.” The hedge-fund billionaire in question is Raj Rajaratnam, whom the government suspects of having had illegal insider information about Goldman goings-on. Knowledge of this Buffett deal would have been especially valuable, since it “[amounted] to a huge vote of confidence by Buffett in the investment banking titan, at a time when investors remain spooked about the future of Wall Street,” according to The Los Angeles Times. At the time, Buffett was heralded as a “White Knight,” and Goldman C.E.O. Lloyd Blankfein characterized the investment as “a strong validation of our client franchise and future prospects.

• Will Goldman Sachs C.E.O. Lloyd Blankfein make $100 million or nothing this year? Apparently, everyone on Wall Street needs to know this asap. [Nyt] • Scott Brown will be sworn in today. He’ll celebrate afterwards with a tastefully nude photo shoot in his new offices. [Lat] • Jon Stewart faced off with Bill O’Reilly last night and managed to get in one good line about how Fox News treats Obama like the second coming of Chairman Mao. [Variety] • Now that he’s no longer tied to Kate Hudson, A-Rod is hitting home runs all over Miami. [Page Six] • Michael Jackson’s doctor Conrad Murray will be arraigned on manslaughter charges on Friday morning in Los Angeles. [Kwtx] • Don’t try to impress your kids with your Tweets and blog posts. They’re too busy texting to give a crap. On the bright side, your invasion of Facebook hasn’t soured them on it—yet. [USA Today]...

One of the biggest disconnects on Wall Street today is between the way Goldman Sachs sees itself (they’re the smartest) and the way everyone else sees Goldman (they’re the smartest, greediest, and most dangerous). Questioning C.E.O. Lloyd Blankfein, C.O.O. Gary Cohn, and C.F.O. David Viniar, among others, the author explores how their firm navigated the collapse of September 2008, why it has already set aside $16.7 billion for compensation this year, and which lines it’s accused of crossing.

Andrew Ross Sorkin poses with a Colossal Gram signed by Warren Buffett. Photo by Daniel Paik. Mystery solved! While a number of media outlets have speculated in highfalutin editorial tones about why there weren’t more grateful-to-be-bailed-out Wall Street fat cats attending Barack Obama’s twin fundraisers last night in New York, it turns out the answer was simple: the president wasn’t the biggest draw in town. What was? Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter’s cocktail party at Manhattan’s Monkey Bar celebrating the release of New York Times business reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin’s sprawling and cinematic tome, Too Big to Fail. It is, surely, the first time so many Wall Street tycoons have been under one roof outside of Washington hearing rooms since the crash. Even before that, the only thing that comes close was Blackstone chief Steve Schwarzman’s over-the-top birthday party in early 2007. But those were different times.

Each year, Vanity Fair ranks 100 power players on the New Establishment list. Each week, Vf Daily reports their maneuvers in our Work Week in Review. ↑ Lloyd Blankfein (No. 1) is in Timothy Geithner’s fave five. A Foia request by the Wall Street Journal reveals that the Treasury Secretary met or spoke with the Goldman Sachs C.E.O. 22 times between January and July. ↓ Jeff Zucker (No. 61) appoints Bon Jovi as the “NBC artist in residence.” In related news, Lady Gaga has been tapped to serve as the NBC poet laureate. ↑ Jon Stewart (No. 48) scores the key to Bellingham, Washington. → Bryan Lourd (No. 24) takes heat from his ex-wife Carrie Fisher in her Broadway show, Wishful Drinking. Referring to the plot twist that ended their marriage, Fisher says, "Turning people gay is a superpower of mine." → Arnold Schwarzenegger (No. 49) tweets a response to TMZ after the site posted multiple photographs of Maria Shriver...

The government secretly tried to orchestrate a deal involving Goldman Sachs in the week following Lehman Brothers’ collapse and considered using the Federal Reserve to help support such a transaction, Andrew Ross Sorkin reports in the new issue of Vanity Fair. In an excerpt from his forthcoming book, Too Big To Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System—and Themselves, Sorkin reports that the deal, which was nearly consummated, would have merged Goldman Sachs and Wachovia. Henry M. Paulson, the Treasury secretary and former C.E.O. of Goldman, was deeply involved in the process, contacting both Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman's current C.E.O., and a Wachovia board member, and strongly urged both to consider it. Wachovia’s C.E.O., Robert Steel, was a former vice-chairman at Goldman Sachs and Paulson’s former number two at the Treasury Department. Sorkin...

Bruce Feirstein charts the 100 people, companies, institutions, and vices most responsible for the economic mess. Tune into Vf.com for five new financial villains every day.46. Gordon Gekko. Because greed didn’t turn out to be so good. Let’s blame this one on Michael Douglas: playing the corporate raider Gordon Gekko in an Oscar-winning performance in Oliver Stone’s 1987 film Wall Street, Douglas was so convincing—so mesmerizing, so charismatic—that by the year 2000, a large percentage of the corporate world had forgotten that the Gekko character was the villain. And instead of a warning call, the phrase “greed is good” became a battle cry, and a corporate mission statement. 47. Goldman Sachs. Sometimes the bad guys don’t show up until late in the movie. During the height of the financial crisis, “the best and the brightest” at Goldman Sachs were pretty much flying under the radar. Sure,...

Goldman Sachs boss Lloyd Blankfein has warned his employees to avoid high-profile spending, as The Post reported -- but his wife evidently didn't get the memo.

Laura Blankfein and her friend Susan Friedman, wife of another Goldman honcho, Richard Friedman, caused a huge scene at Super Saturday in the Hamptons last weekend when they arrived at the event before the noon start time and balked at waiting in line with the other ticket-holders.

"Their behavior was obnoxious. They were screaming," said one witness. Blankfein said...

The Democrats want me to pay for your health care and I am trying to think how I feel about this. With a 5.4% tax on anything above $350,000, we’re not talking chopped liver. True, I am happy to be in the top 2% of American earners. But not so happy, or flush, that I’m eager to pay your doctors' bills. I suppose, however, I don’t mind, if, say, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, who made $68.7 million in 2007 and, with Goldman’s black arts, may match that this year, has to pay $3.7 million to cover your medical costs. Still, Blankfein probably feels paying $3.7 million for other people’s health care is a lot to ask. And, indeed, if you’re going to ask for $3.7 million—which, after all, still leaves him with $65 million—hell, why not ask for $60 million, which would still leave him with $8.7, which would make almost anyone else deliriously happy.

Members of the posh Reebok Sports Club on Columbus Avenue have gone vigilante to catch a thief. The upscale gym -- where Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs, Chris Cuomo of "Good Morning America," actor Taye Diggs, music executive La Reid, and p.r. honchos Ronn Torossian and Brad Zeifman work out -- has been hit regularly over the last year by a brazen burglar who steals cash and valuables from lockers. After talent manager Steve Herz had his $7,000 Panerai diving watch swiped last month,...