[There is] a horrifying mismatch between Wall Street’s vast power over the economy and its utter lack of conscience. Although Goldman [Sachs] has long been the most prestigious firm on the Street and therefore nominally the heir to the [J.P.] Morgan lineage [of social responsibility], it has never matured into that older role. It couldn’t really afford any sense of noblesse oblige about the American economy. On the contrary: Goldman’s corporate ethos is clearly more that of a predator than a protector. Indeed, Goldman became known as the savviest and most prestigious firm on the street in part because it had no scruples about simultaneously betting against products it was selling. One reason for Goldman’s success was that as a firm it developed a sharper and more pervasive hedge-fund mentality before the other investment banks did.

Utter lack of conscience. No scruples. Predator.

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… The broader public and political resentment, as one crisis manager put it, grows out of the sense that Goldman Sachs not only hasn’t “shared the pain” experienced by the rest of America, but has “profited from it.”

… The White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, the guest of honor at a private Park Avenue cocktail soiree for wealthy Obama supporters this month, surely wasn’t pleased when it was reported that a Goldman Sachs partner was present…

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Update: Other people – academics and non-academics – with Goldman Sachs problems:

Republican frontrunner Meg Whitman tried again to put her previous relationship with the bank behind her, telling the Associated Press she regrets taking part in a now-banned stock sale practice involving the company and that she left its board after 15 months because she “wasn’t a good fit.”

But her remarks only provided ammunition to political foes seeking to remind voters that Whitman, a former Goldman Sachs board member, has a past with the investment firm now under scrutiny for its role in the national financial crisis.

… She sat on Goldman’s board from October 2001 to December 2002, a job that paid the equivalent of $475,000 in cash and stock options.

… Whitman told the Associated Press Tuesday that she stepped down from the board position because it “wasn’t a good fit.” …

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A top prospect for the Supreme Court was a paid member of an advisory panel for the embattled investment firm Goldman Sachs, federal financial disclosures show.

Solicitor General Elena Kagan was a member of the Research Advisory Council of the Goldman Sachs Global Markets Institute, according to the financial disclosures she filed when President Obama appointed her last year to her current post. Kagan served on the Goldman panel from 2005 through 2008, when she was dean of Harvard Law School, and received a $10,000 stipend for her service in 2008, her disclosure forms show.

A spokesman for Goldman Sachs did not respond to requests for comment Monday.

The advisory panel met once a year to discuss public policy issues and was not involved in any investment decisions, Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said.

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Are we beginning to get a sense of this amazing gig? I mean, Kagan’s?

She goes to New York City once a

year to DISCUSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

public policy. Just sit there, baby! Maybe you let everybody else do the talking… How many people are on the committee? Maybe you say five things… Then you take a train back to Cambridge and wait for your ten thousand dollar check.

President Obama has stressed that he wants the next Supreme Court justice to be able to relate to ordinary Americans. Looks like Kagan has aced that one.

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Ruth Simmons’ fellow academic board member, Bill George, is a business professor at Harvard (though he lives in Minnesota). He hasn’t said anything about recent Goldman Sachs events. Here’s something he said shortly before the shit hit the fan.

Leadership starts with gaining alignment with the mission and values of the organization: What are we about? What do we believe as a group? Goldman Sachs, where I serve on the board, has achieved solid alignment around its mission: “The clients’ interests always come first.”