How a 2008 crisis deepened connections
A blue-ribbon commission had just excoriated Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street banks for fueling the financial crisis in 2008. Prosecutors were investigating whether Goldman had misled investors. The company was a whipping boy for politicians looking to lay blame for the crash.
But in spring of 2011, Lloyd C. Blankfein, leading one of the nation’s most reviled companies, found himself onstage with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, one of the nation’s most admired public figures at the time. And Ms. Clinton had come to praise Goldman Sachs.
The State Department, Ms. Clinton announced that day in an auditorium in its Foggy Bottom headquarters, would throw its weight behind a Goldman philanthropic initiative aimed at encouraging female entrepreneurs around the world — a program Goldman viewed as central to rehabilitating its reputation.
Ms. Clinton’s blessing — an important public seal of approval for Goldman at a time when it had few defenders in Washington — underscored a long-running relationship between one of the country’s most powerful financial firms and one of its most famous political families. Over 20-plus years, Goldman provided the Clintons with some of their most influential advisers, millions of dollars in campaign contributions and speaking fees, and financial support for the family foundation’s charitable programs.
And in the wake of the worst crash since the Great Depression, as the firm fended off investigations and criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike, the Clintons drew Goldman only closer. Bill Clinton publicly defended the company and leased office space from Goldman for his foundation. Ms. Clinton, after leaving the State Department, earned $675,000 to deliver three speeches at Goldman events, where she reassured executives that they had an important role to play in the nation’s recovery.
The four years between the end of the financial crisis and the start of Ms. Clinton’s second White House bid revealed a family that viewed Wall Street’s elite as friends and collaborators even as the public viewed them with suspicion and scorn. Those relationships would become a focal point for attacks on Ms. Clinton’s integrity and independence by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
And even now, under a barrage of populist taunts from Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, Ms. Clinton faces lingering doubts about the sincerity of her proposals to rein in Wall Street behavior. In June, 60 percent of registered voters expressed concern that her links to Wall Street could prevent her from holding the financial industry accountable, an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found.
“Wall Street now conjures up images of corruption, and if you are a person from Wall Street, you have to overcome that,” said Roy C. Smith, a former Goldman Sachs partner who teaches finance at New York University. “One of the big rubs against Hillary now is that she was paid by Goldman to give speeches at Goldman.”