Paul J. Davies, Columnist

At Goldman Sachs, Bonuses Can Buy Solomon Love

The CEO is facing mutinous ranks after leading the bank into a costly bad bet.

August 29, 2023 at 4:00 AM UTC

Paul J. Davies is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering banking and finance. Previously, he was a reporter for the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times.

David Solomon, chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., — David Solomon, chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.,
*Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg*

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Everyone loves a soap opera and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has been delivering endless intrigue and anonymous backstabbing in rolling media reports of Chief Executive Officer David Solomon’s purported personal failings. But there’s something a little empty about it all. William Cohan, author of a 2011 history of the firm, said it best on Bloomberg TV last week: Investment bankers are pretty simple, if their bonuses go up this year, the griping will die down.

Solomon can relieve his bankers’ irritations by liberally applying the traditional Wall Street salve of cash. The obstacle is the heavy cost of undoing Goldman’s big push into consumer banking.