Goldman Sachs planning to lay off up to
4 000 people shinani Basics jumped on
the phone for us schnelli I assume
you've read through the story as well
what'd you make of these headlines
though dropped in the last couple of
minutes yeah eight percent is what this
would amount to according to semaphore
that's about uh 4 000 people or so
listen remember if you put this in a
comparison for example what you saw
Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley's
percentage cut was about two percent I'd
say Goldman has expanded pretty
drastically over a set of Acquisitions
and hiring over the last couple of years
we talked to David Solomon just a week
ago and he hinted that pruning would
happen so this puts a number around how
deep pruning goes thousands not hundreds
this will go into early next year
according to semaphore so this is in
addition to the cuts you've already seen
remember if Goldman is doing this you
have to assume that other people are
already also starting to think about
whether it's time to start cutting some
jobs after massive head count increases
last couple years it's kind of very
classic Wall Street behavior isn't it um
I hire a lot in the good times and then
before things get bad is when you start
to prune Channel there's a real question
especially around Goldman Sachs about
whether this is going to be concentrated
in the consumer-facing business the
Marcus operations or whether it will be
broad-based including some of the
investment banking units that have been
incredibly successful what's your sense
based on your conversations with
leadership there
we can put money towards people and that
conversation gets even more significant
in bad times so even at a trading desk
for example my question would be for
Goldman is when you put that marginal
dollar to work are you going to put it
to work on a start Trader are you going
to automate your processes more in fixed
income or other places that is the
Strategic decision you have to make in a
hard time into next year while you're
protecting your margin and by the way
one may pay off more than the other and
so you have to assume that low
performers across every business line
are going to be taking a look at and
yeah this is not going to be from my
understanding just dedicated to Marcus
although remember they did buy that
business greensky in that consumer
business that added a thousand or so
people in the last year it's not only
we've got about a minute left let's just
take a step back you caught up with the
CEO of Goldman only a couple of weeks
ago was there any indication of this
just thinking back to that conversation
any indication whatsoever that something
like this was coming
the eight percent you have to think
about it in perspective here it is more
than what we're seeing at Morgan's
family it's more than what we have seen
announced the Citigroup or Barclays but
it has to be a harbinger of things to
come here on Wall Street which is why
people pay so much attention to Goldman
at this time