[ by Howard Haykin ]

"Why I Left Goldman Sachs: A Wall Street Story" promises to be a tell-all of Mr. Smith's 12-year career at the bank.

No one should be surprised that Greg Smith is coming out so soon with a book detailing his experiences as a Goldman Sachs employee.  The book is due out on 10/22/12 - just 7 months after Mr. Smith publicly resigned from the bank with an Op-Ed page article in The New York Times. You may recall Smith's detailed opinion piece - addressing his disappointment with Goldman's business practices, and saying it reflected, more broadly, a corrosive culture at the nation's largest banks. 

Grand Central has planned a robust print run of 150,000 copies in hardcover and expects to sell a sizable number of copies in e-book format.

So What Does This Mean?   Simply stated, Goldman Sachs will have one additional thing to worry about this fall - on top of the eurozone crisis, the threat of numerous lawsuits pertaining to sales of asset backed securities, and manipulation of interest rates, as well as potential insider trading charges that loom overhead.

"Why I Left Goldman Sachs: A Wall Street Story."   As note above, the publication date for Mr. Smith's memoirs is 10/22.  So the leading question is this:  Just how much demand is there for a supposed "tell-all" book about the inner workings of Goldman Sachs?

Well, if his opinion piece in the New York Times is any indication, it was viewed over within 24 hours it The article struck a nerve. Within 24 hours, it had over three million views online within the first 24 hours. 

Publishers clamored for the rights to a book, but Grand Central Publishing - a division of the Hachette Book Group - won the deal by offering Smith an advance of nearly $1.5 million, according to people with direct knowledge of the negotiations.  With that sort of money changing hands, it's highly likely that there will be a monster advertising push - replete with TV, Radio and Internet interviews with just about all of the major players in the news and entertainment sectors. 

Not a Great Time For Goldman.   Goldman Sachs and its senior executive corps have avoided the spotlight for quite some time, and these days one doesn't hear much in the way of negative publicity about the firm.

Of course, the financial industry has provided enough distractions and smoke screens to hide any celebrity firm.  Let's see, there's .....  Barclays and JPMorgan Chase, and MF Global and Peregrine.  Don't forget the presidential campaigns that, by now, are in full swing.

Dredging Up Bad References.   There's a long conga line of matters that are sure to resurface once specifics from the book begin to be quoted.  Such as....

• The $550 million settlement with the SEC over a subprime mortgage product that was sold to clients.
• The insider trading trial of former Goldman director, Rajat Gupta, that led to at least 2 other executives coming under investigation.
• The depiction of a blood sucking "vampire squid" - introduced in a Rolling Stone article, never fails to capture the public's imagination and, once again, it will help to make Goldman a symbol of Wall Street's dark side.

Twelve Year Career with Goldman and What He Expressed In His Termination Letter (in the NYTimes).   In writing this book, Smith had a bounty of information and experiences to draw upon.  And, he no doubt should be able to support his view of Goldman - which he expressed in his NYTimes Resignation Letter - as being a "once-vaunted institution that had lost its way."  He further wrote that when he first joined the bank as an intern in the summer of 2000, it obsessively put its clients' interests first. 

But, over time, he saw Goldman as devolving into a "toxic and destructive" culture that put profit before principle. His former colleagues mocked their clients, he said, derisively referring to them as "muppets."

"I truly believe that this decline in the firm's moral fiber represents the single most serious threat to its long-run survival," Mr. Smith wrote. "It makes me ill how callously people talk about ripping their clients off."

There's plenty more to read in the referenced Dealbook story.  To get it all, click on:   [Dealbook, 9/12/12].