[ by Larry Goldfarb ]

Greg Smith’s expose, “Why I Left Goldman Sachs," that reads more like a memoir that the "tell-all tale" is reputed to be, goes on sale Monday, October 22.  Grand Central Publishing, which won the bidding contest for Mr. Smith's inside story, left Goldman officials wondering what sort of embarrassing revelations might come out, and so they braced themselves for the worst case scenario.  'Smitty's' publication, on first blush, appears to the be soft core, which allowed the Goldman hierarchy to breathe a sigh of relief. 

A Goldman spokesperson said the firm was "relieved" that the book provided few new details of the "toxic" culture that he said prompted him to quit. It does repeat allegations first described in Mr. Smith's New York Times Op-Ed page article - something that everyone at Goldman apparently can live with.  Here are some of the Smith's early disclosures:

• Ruthless Tactics. Changes in corporate culture that Smith attributes to the ascension of former trader Lloyd Blankfein, to the Chief Executive position, as well as the changes wrought by the financial crisis on Wall Street.

• Referring to Clients as Muppets.   Muppets was a word that, for me, once evoked childhood memories of cute puppets, like Big Bird and Kermit the Frog.  At Goldman's London Office, it was not used in such a sweet, endearing context.

• Selling Clients Junk. Even after Goldman Sachs agreed to pay $550 million to settle SEC charges related to a Collateralized Debt Obligation (CDO) series the firm sold to the public, but which tanked shortly thereafter, Mr. Smith finds himself pressured to sell a financial product he nicknamed Clorox, which he likens to a bologna sandwich sold as "Panino de Bologna." In a chapter called "Monstrosities," he describes how dismayed he is that endowments, philanthropies and foundations "took the bait."

• Attends Strip Clubs Early On.   As an intern, Smith visits Scores, a well-known New York strip club, that he likened to "about five minutes of dances from a few blond bombshells."  During that brief interlude, Mr. Smith nevertheless runs up a tab of $750. "Seven hundred and fifty dollars! I certainly didn't have that kind of money to throw around - it would have been a significant portion of my net worth."

For more information, please read   [NYTimes, 10/19/2012].