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Goldman Sachs: No More "Sh**ty" Deals
Sen. Carl Levin quoted an internal Goldman Sachs email which referred to a security the company was selling as a 'sh**ty deal' back at a Senate hearing in April.
(Credit: AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)Goldman Sachs might still be able to sell a bad mortgage-backed security, but there'll be no more "sh**ty" deals.
The Wall Street firm has told its employees that they can't use profanity in emails, text messages or instant messages anymore, not even ones with asterisks, The Wall Street Journal ($) reports Thursday.
That's 34,000 traders, investment bankers and other employees suddenly seeing their arsenal of four- and five-letter words out of reach. The company will even screen the messages with computer programs to prevent ones that might slip by.
The term "sh**ty deal," if you remember, provided the touchstone moment at an April Senate hearing featuring Goldman executives. Sen. Carl Levin repeatedly - and to comically indignant effect - invoked the phrase in a memorable 10-minute period during which he questioned Daniel Sparks on whether the company was pushing a bad mortgage security called Timberwolf on clients. He quoted an email sent to Sparks, which read: "Boy, that Timberwolf was one sh**ty deal."
Levin then asked: "How much of that shi**ty deal did you sell?"
And "you didn't tell them that you thought this was a sh**ty deal?"
And "should Goldman Sachs be trying to sell the sh**ty deal? Can you answer that one, yes or no?"
There were even T-shirts made.
No word on whether this applies to shorthand forms like "WTF."
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