Crisis Leaves Goldman Nearly Unruffled

With the US financial inferno taking down most of the big investment banks, Goldman Sachs is set to emerge “essentially the same institution,” David Weidner writes in MarketWatch, stronger than it was before and with the same powerful array of friends in high places who, intentionally or otherwise, have helped it navigate the credit crisis.

“Goldman, like its rivals, is on the prowl for deposits, but unlike its competitors, it will be the acquirer,” he writes, pointing out that Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch are no longer around to offer competition. “Goldman emerges from this mess essentially the same institution. It has the same lack of transparency. It still manages hedge funds and private-equity businesses. It still has a thriving prime brokerage business.” (More Goldman Sachs stories.)