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Greg Smith vs Goldman Sachs

MacroAndCheese's picture




 

macroandcheese.org

 

When I read Greg Smith's op ed in the New York Times my very strong impression was, "Nothing new here, so what, not worth reading." That's certainly true as far as I was concerned, but when a friend not in finance told me the contents of the editorial was a surprise, I thought I had better weigh in. I even feel somewhat duty-bound to do so, because I spent many years on the "sell side," that is, at firms like Goldman Sachs.

In fact I started my career at Salomon Brothers, the setting of Michael Lewis' "Liar's Poker." Lewis was three years ahead of me, and spoke to my training class, as mentioned in his book, around the time of the great crash of '87. Anyone who thought Smith's litany of complaints about Goldman Sachs were new or surprising has either not read Lewis' book, or has forgotten the contents--which is fair enough, since the book was published more than twenty years ago.

For those of us who were working at Salomon Brothers when Liar's Poker was published in 1989, the contents of the book came as no surprise. In fact, we all thought he nailed it. Salomon in the day was a rough and tumble place where foul language, sports analogies, and ruthless internal competition ruled every day. This was not a place for brainy professors to come to share their knowledge and help client CFOs benefit society. This was a place to out-sell the guy sitting next to you so you would get a bigger piece of the bonus pool at the end of the each year.

How you did that was your problem. The idea at Salomon then and at Goldman now is that you as a salesman have to make as many sales as you possibly can. That means you have to get your customer to like you so that he will want to trade with you. But for most of the products that Salomon sold (and Goldman Sachs sells), the products were OTC--over the counter. There is no commission per se, there is just the bid and offer price. So it's not only a volume game, it's also a price mark-up game. If you think your customer will pay 101 rather than 100 for bonds, you can offer them at 101 and see if he bites.

This is all in Michael Lewis' book. Here's an excerpt from page 35:


In any market, as in any poker game, there is a fool. The astute investor Warren Buffett is fond of saying that any player unaware of the fool in the market probably is the fool in the market. Salomon bond traders knew about the fools because that was their job. Knowing about markets is knowing about other people's weaknesses. And a fool, they would say, was a person who was willing to sell a bond for less or buy a bond for more than it was worth.

 

Or let's hear from Larry Fink, now the head of Blackrock, as quoted in Liar's Poker, talking about the savings and loan customers who traded with the big investment banks like Salomon:

"October 1981 was the most irresponsible period in the history of the capital markets. The thrifts that did the best did nothing. The ones that did the big trades got raped."

So now, 23 years later, for Greg Smith to raise eyebrows by "exposing" some of the less palatable aspects of Goldman's business practices seems a bit much. For one thing, Liar's Poker was a #1 bestseller. Everyone has read it. For another, anyone who pays the least bit of attention to the news knows that Goldman got into some very hot water three years ago for helping a hedge fund manager "short" subprime mortgage securities to a Goldman client. But if you're truly worried about Goldman now, you certainly should have been concerned in 2000, when Roger Lowenstein published his book on the collapse of mega-hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM), "When Genius Failed."

In that book, Lowenstein describes the scene when employees of Goldman Sachs were at LTCM's office in Greenwich, Connecticut, as LTCM tried to avert collapse from a concentration of too many trading positions all going bad at once. Goldman was there to do "due diligence," that is, to conduct an inspection of LTCM's books so that they could represent LTCM's condition to investors to help LTCM secure financing. It's like a large-scale credit check. As Lowenstein portrays it:

A key member of the Goldman team was Jacob Goldfield, a lanky and brilliant but abrasive trader. According to witnesses, the headstrong Goldfield appeared to be downloading Long-Term's positions, which the fund had so zealously guarded, from Long-Term's own computers directly into an oversized laptop (a detail that Goldman later denied.) Meanwhile, Goldman's traders in New York sold some of the very same positions. At the end of one day, when the fund's positions were worth a good deal less, some Goldman traders at Long-Term's offices sauntered up to the trading desk and offered to buy them. Brazenly playing both sides of the street, Goldman represented mercenary banking at its ugliest. To JM (head of LTCM) and his partners, Goldman was raping Long-Term in front of their very eyes.

In other words, Goldman was exploiting its priviledged position of trust and confidentiality to identify exactly what LTCM would need to dump in a massive fire sale, and beat them to the punch, profiting from the deluge of liquidation that surely would follow. Lowenstein's book is in its sixth print as of 2008, and was a Business Week "Best Book of the Year" in the year it was published. This is not "new news."

It's not that Goldman's comportment is unusually bad. Nor, obviously, is it particularly good. But scolding Goldman because some salespeople referred to clients as "muppets," to paraphrase Martin Sheen in "Apocalypse Now," is like handing out speeding tickets at the Indy 500. It's the nature of the beast.

As a fresh college graduate years before working for Salomon Brothers, I spent a year treading water in the town of my university before embarking on a short stint as a teacher. Job pickings were slim, so I decided to try my hand at being a waiter at the best restaurant in town. It was no lay-up. To be merely considered for a waiter slot, I first had to be a busboy. To be a busboy, I had to work for free, for some undetermined period of time, in a sort of busboy audition. After one day I threw in the towel.

I didn't make any money, but I got a good glimpse behind the scenes. In the confines of the tables, all was well, and elegant. In the kitchen, it was a swearfest. "Where is the f*cking side of potatoes," and "That SOB at Table 14 is gonna be wearing his soup" is all you could hear, all night long, on the other side of the metal doors leading to the kitchen.

Greg Smith was a waiter at the restaurant that is Goldman Sachs. He was a salesman, and worse than that, he peddled equity derivatives. To say the least, equity derivatives are not the flavor of the month. Volumes have dried up, and the money that banks are making is coming from fixed income, not equities. Smith was a Vice President among thousands of vice presidents at Goldman Sachs. The interesting question is not who is right in the "he said, she said" duel between Smith and Goldman Sachs, but rather, why did the New York Times give Smith prime time status?

If you're in the market for a home, you seek out the services of a real estate agent. You develop a relationship with that person. You talk about your kids, you talk about where you went for vacation. Do you expect that the realtor, knowing all too well the seller is paying the full fee, is going to work tirelessly to reduce the sale price for you? Do you think the realtor is going to tell you, hang tight, I think they will come down by 5 percent? Of course you don't.

Greg Smith seems to have mistaken his employer for the Red Cross, even though he managed to sell quite a few Goldman products over the years. His efforts will be seen for what they are: Sour grapes, and small, petty ones at that. It's a shame, because the world of finance is sorely in need of a higher ethical standard. But for now it's business as usual, and anyone who thinks otherwise is a muppet, not an muppeteer.

 

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Sun, 03/18/2012 - 09:43 | 2266921 chunga
chunga's picture

Ok. I read it again.

This analogy really stands out, and doesn't quite work for me. Not at all.

Do you think the realtor is going to tell you, hang tight, I think they will come down by 5 percent? Of course you don't.

 

Sun, 03/18/2012 - 15:13 | 2267527 MacroAndCheese
MacroAndCheese's picture

Chunga that's the way of the world.  You don't like it, I don't like it.  But why bark at the ants and pretend banking is evil?  Why shoot the messenger because he happens to work in finance?

I hate buying cars because I know the guy is going to screw me.  So when I buy a car, I do my own research, find out what it should cost, and go in and get it, like a black ops mission.  I don't complain about it and bemoan the fact that car salesmen are going to try to weatherize it for another $600.

Sun, 03/18/2012 - 16:36 | 2267707 chunga
chunga's picture

That's fine. We're all entitled to opinions.

I suppose termites get painted with a broad brush too; even though some of them might not chew wood.

FWIW...I didn't throw any junks at you.

Sun, 03/18/2012 - 18:09 | 2267863 MacroAndCheese
MacroAndCheese's picture

No sorry, I didn't mean you specifically.

Sun, 03/18/2012 - 18:35 | 2267905 chunga
chunga's picture

Understood.

In the way of today's world, it wouldn't be "efficient" or "profitable" to sift through the termites to find the nice ones if one's house were being chewed down.

You'd have to ask the exterminator to spray them all with pesticide. Sorry nice termites...

Sun, 03/18/2012 - 13:01 | 2267228 Piranhanoia
Piranhanoia's picture

Well it is a requirement of law for a buyer's agent.  Are you saying that RE agents are full of shit too?

Sun, 03/18/2012 - 13:37 | 2267313 chunga
chunga's picture

yes

Sun, 03/18/2012 - 14:35 | 2267435 AbruptlyKawaii
AbruptlyKawaii's picture

where do you think all the enron fucks went after it died?

Sat, 03/17/2012 - 23:20 | 2266450 OldTrooper
OldTrooper's picture

Thank you for reminding me why I cashed out my 401k in 1999 and haven't looked back.

Sun, 03/18/2012 - 00:07 | 2266509 AldousHuxley
AldousHuxley's picture

inflation ate away 30-40% of that. Hopefully you bought gold with it.

Sun, 03/18/2012 - 13:59 | 2267366 Kayman
Kayman's picture

AldousHuxley

Of course, there was the other alternative.  Trust an "Investment Banker" and lose 100%.

Sun, 03/18/2012 - 03:42 | 2266728 Yen Cross
Yen Cross's picture

 The Wild West. How quickly we practice to deceive!   One For BODIE!

Sun, 03/18/2012 - 01:17 | 2266632 OldTrooper
OldTrooper's picture

Spent most of it on strippers and guns.  The gold I bought was lost years ago in (of course) a tragic boating accident.

Sun, 03/18/2012 - 10:43 | 2267001 WmMcK
WmMcK's picture

Spent most of it on strippers ...
And squandered the rest? /joking

Sun, 03/18/2012 - 09:26 | 2266901 Bollixed
Bollixed's picture

"Spent most of it on strippers and guns.  The gold I bought was lost years ago in (of course) a tragic boating accident."

Thanks, your comment just brightened my otherwise dismal day with a much needed dose of laughter.

Sat, 03/17/2012 - 23:18 | 2266446 eddiebe
eddiebe's picture

Saying somebody that seeks out professional services and pays for that service should be expected to be swindled is exactly the type of moral decay that brings the whole social order down in a heap of decay and pain. If you call a plumber to come to your house to fix a leaky pipe and he hands you a bill for 3 hours work @ $75. /hr., you should be able to expect him to work those 3 hours and use something other than duct tape to do the job. You certainly don't expect him to tell his buddies how he fucked you over and overcharged you because you were stupid enough to trust him.

 I do expect the person I hire to do a job to do right by me, as I do right by the person I do a job for. That is how a healthy society works The type of attitude you display, Mr. cheese is despicable and will never be accepted by people that have a moral bone left in their bodies.

Sun, 03/18/2012 - 12:03 | 2267126 DrewJackson
DrewJackson's picture

Sad thing is that plumbers and other trades are doing just this as well....  There is decay all around.   Heading to 3rd world status quickly.

Sun, 03/18/2012 - 08:27 | 2266852 MacroAndCheese
MacroAndCheese's picture

Eddiebe I might say as much of your ignorance and contempt for the vast majority of honest people in finance.  I am not defending Goldman for god's sake, I'm saying this aspect of investment banking is not new.  Do you think this piece--or my opinion--is supportive of what happened at LTCM's office?  Do I really have to spell out for you that it is indeed reprehensible?

I am only saying there's nothing new here, and people who pretend there is--like you--are being poseur rage boys out for another fix of banker-bashing.

How dare you call me despicable.  You don't know me.  You don't even know what I think about all this.  That was not the topic of this post.

Sun, 03/18/2012 - 13:47 | 2267335 mess nonster
mess nonster's picture

In a way, it does seem like you're saying, "Well, she got all dolled up in a sexy outfit and went to the club, so she was asking to get raped."

I will give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you're more nuanced than that.

M n' Cheese is really saying,

"It's quite true that it is dangerous for young women to wear sexually provocative clothing when they go out dancing. But we should be careful not to place the blame on them. The blame correctly lies with the perpetrators of rape, and on a deeper level, with the culture that condones sexual violence via rampant sexualization and a maze of double standards.

Even if Greg Smith's expose is not news, we should constantly be reminded that reform is needed. Just because everyone does it and has been doing it for a long time is no no excuse for the bad behavior."

Sun, 03/18/2012 - 13:46 | 2267334 riley martini
riley martini's picture

 There is something new the system collasped under the massive fraud and general corruption and a light was shined on how the corruption extended to fascist politicians that transfered the labor=money to their fascist cohorts in finance. The labor=money transfer was a multi generational theft.

Sun, 03/18/2012 - 13:14 | 2267257 Piranhanoia
Piranhanoia's picture

The person quit, and told everyone that the firm is a criminal enterprise.  Why does this suprise you or anyone? If the firm is a criminal enterprise,  how can the particpants not be involved in willful criminal activity?   Please explain that, as you seem to be confused about Smith, GS, and your own argument as it comes unraveled.

The argument that finance isn't a criminal activity is specious. It has always been about usury and the stealing of someone else's property for personal gain.  It is about misrepresentation of facts to sell something.   

Please explain when that stopped so we understand how good comes to your clients as a result of the underlying crime?

 

Sun, 03/18/2012 - 10:33 | 2266982 BlankfeinDiamond
BlankfeinDiamond's picture

Sure, you start off by saying that there is nothing new here but then end with the "sour grapes" accusation, which seems to be a tacit support of the GS/Wallstreet status quo. Don't cry when people read your piece and come away with the feeling that you are standing with Goliath.

Sun, 03/18/2012 - 14:42 | 2267451 AbruptlyKawaii
AbruptlyKawaii's picture

"vast majority of honest people in finance"

 

you're right i dont know you, dont need to, i just really want to see you die a slow death, in front of your family, or better yet, i'd like to see your family killed very slowly right before your eyes, then you, again very slow death.

FUCK YOU!

Sat, 03/17/2012 - 23:04 | 2266420 nothing can go wrogn
nothing can go wrogn's picture

Have you seen a picture of Greg Smith? He looks like a little Blankein in training. Little Lloyd. I assume having a bald head is a requirement to work at GS. Every time I see one of them I think of the Bob Marley song "Chase those crazy baldheads out of town"

This whole Greg Smith thing isn't passing the smell test with me. Whenever you hear New York Times and Goldman Sachs in the same sentence, you know you're being sold a bill of goods.

Sun, 03/18/2012 - 13:36 | 2267310 mess nonster
mess nonster's picture

Yep. Sumthin's  up. Goldman's a rat's nest, and I smell a rat. Lone gunmen... and Jack Ruby (stein). Why does this all seem so familiar?

What if... the elite decide to rebuild the core somewhere else, and then (only after their "base" ((Al Quaeda)) is well-established) they decide to take down the facade (Goldman Sachs, et al), and pretend like its' all a grand revolution? Would we be fooled? Fuckin' A right we'd be fooled. And we'd be robbed blind down to our birthdat suits and cheering all the way.

These rat-fucks don't call us goyim for nuthin'....

 

Sun, 03/18/2012 - 14:45 | 2267460 AbruptlyKawaii
AbruptlyKawaii's picture

UAE

Sun, 03/18/2012 - 09:02 | 2266885 Debt-Is-Not-Money
Debt-Is-Not-Money's picture

You're right- a mini-lloyd !

Sat, 03/17/2012 - 23:14 | 2266440 williambanzai7
williambanzai7's picture

Thank you for drawing that song to my attention ;-)

Sun, 03/18/2012 - 01:35 | 2266646 nothing can go wrogn
nothing can go wrogn's picture

Haha...sure.

To elaborate on my post above...

Here's a possible outcome. This Greg Smith thing...Muppetgate. Is a prelude to a contrived management "shake up" at GS. Someone is going to leave the firm like Blankfein. GS will replace with someone totally awesome and ethical! (Like the Honorable Jon Corzine? What happened to that guy?) The world will be better, and everyone can go back to sleep.

My other thought is that it's just a PR piece with the implicit message that...the only thing wrong with GS is there's a few unethical people, GS took their eye off the ball. They just need to straighten thier tie and start shooting a little more straight when it comes to making an honest days living. The Smith piece contains nothing about GS buying elections, wrecking economies, racketeering, looting, economic terrorism or other charges.

The Greg Smith piece is written with a naive simplicity that seems to be aimed at someone with about an 8th grade education.

Some of the comments he makes:

"Goldman Sachs is one of the world's largest and most important investment banks and it is too integral to global finance to continue to act this way."

Integral to global finance? That sounds like another way of saying Too Big To Fail. I think I would disagree here. I think the globe would be better off without Goldman Sachs. Just as a dog would be better off without fleas.

"I don't know of any illegal behavior."

Of course not. Who would suspect something like that? You spent the last 12 years of your life working for GS, but you probably never even saw someone use the photo copier for personal reasons.

"Weed out the morally bankrupt people, no matter how much money they make for the firm."

Haha. "Lloyd, Bill Sputzmann just made us record profits this year. Fantastic Frank. There's a problem though. He failed his moral bankruptcy questionaire. You're kidding? Call security and have him escorted out of the building."

get the culture right again, so people want to work here for the right reasons. People who care only about making money will not sustain this firm

Why exactly would people want to work at GS? I can only think of one reason. The close of Smith's piece could lead one to believe that GS is a non-profit organization that just lost sight of it's original mission of helping people, communities, and of course saving the children.

 

Sun, 03/18/2012 - 05:38 | 2266783 StychoKiller
StychoKiller's picture

One can STILL make munny by being honest with people, unfortunately, even more can be made by lying, and so here we are!

Sun, 03/18/2012 - 06:31 | 2266806 PMakoi
PMakoi's picture

"You can go a long way with a smile. But, you can go further with a smile and a gun." --Al Capone

Sat, 03/17/2012 - 23:00 | 2266408 Yen Cross
Yen Cross's picture

As If?

Sat, 03/17/2012 - 22:57 | 2266404 huggy_in_london
huggy_in_london's picture

Yeah I think you are missing something and that is that this was written by an insider prepared to put his name to it....that's significantly different to some outsider authoring something.

But, I will agree with you that you could substitute any banks name in the article for Goldman. I have worked in banks and worked on the buy side....all the banks are the same. they are not there looking out for me now when I trade....they couldn't care less, but it's not like I don't know that!

Sat, 03/17/2012 - 22:15 | 2266294 regionswork
regionswork's picture

 

Past-Present-Future: Wall Street broker ? honesty

Future Outcome: Collapse

 


 

 

Sat, 03/17/2012 - 21:46 | 2266211 sIewie the pi-rat
sIewie the pi-rat's picture

Greg Smith will be a mannequin in obi's trunk show

so after selling his soul to llllloyd he pedals it again to axel, then again maybe he is just a white slave and if that is the case my sympathy

Sat, 03/17/2012 - 22:01 | 2266190 williambanzai7
williambanzai7's picture

Real Estate Brokers and Bankers

I wouldn't know where to begin with what you have said, but I would say that LTCM and Lowenstein's book, which is sitting right here next to me, may not be the proper place. That is an interesting work, but I have never heard it referenced for ethical learning. And I coubt it is read by your average Main Street muppet. 

Instead I will start with this: "If you're in the market for a home, you seek out the services of a real estate agent. You develop a relationship with that person. You talk about your kids, you talk about where you went for vacation."

Let's forget about what is and what is not the real world of modern real estate for a moment.

Do you really think this is how it is supposed to work? If that is how bankers think of themselves, as real estate brokers, it explains a great deal.

Unfortunately, there are many oridinary muppets (from Main Street) who don't understand that the broker is not acting as their broker and no one ever bothers to tell them this. This is why real estate brokers are right down there next to politicians and bankers. No one seems to know who is acting on whose behalf and there is no clearly defined set of ethical rules practiced and enforced.

Lawyers are publicly disdained for a different reason, fee appetite.  Surprisingly, they do a fairly good job of policing themselves when it comes to conflicts of interest. That is because there is a clearly defined set of ethical rules that lead to disbarrment if you violate a client's confidence or fiduciary trust by acting for two masters, be it yourself or an adversary on one side and your client on the other.

But all of this dancing on the head of a pin is neither here nor there. 

The bottom line is this. If a Wall Street muppet (and I now use 'muppet' in the purely British sense, i.e. idiot) like AIG wants to go and get gang banged by Goldman Sachs  (them being the sophisticated morons that they are) fine, let them all go and do it to each other tens ways from Sunday. Just don't ask to be bailed out by Uncle Sam on both ends of the trade when the sewer inevitably explodes. 

Let the rats all drown in their private OTC sewer.

Meanwhile the loss of public trust caused by the 'trader mentality' infecting the origination and client end of the business, continues to do untold damage to the economic engine that is supposed to be our capital market...our capital market, not Goldman Sachs' private turkey shoot. 

Finally, I will say how unsurprised I was how the Delaware opinion was openly disparaged and ridiculed on the Street two weeks ago.

One week later a kid basically says the same thing in a different context in the NYT and management suddenly wants to go back and review their ethical practices in view of that important Delaware decision?

Give me a break.

PS: My experience has always been that calling someone a broker or a finder in the deal world is looked upon as a derogatory slur. Someone even decided that there should be a distinction made for theoretical 'honest brokers'. My how times have changed.

Sun, 03/18/2012 - 03:34 | 2266723 Yen Cross
Yen Cross's picture

 Commercial Real Estate Brokers are the ( dark pool) agents of Insurance companies! 

  They get the good seats at baseball games though. Their " General Council"provides as well.

 

 

Sat, 03/17/2012 - 22:06 | 2266261 MacroAndCheese
MacroAndCheese's picture

Yes times have changed.  Honest broker?  Maybe back in the '50s.  When I was buying OTC products from the likes of Goldman for many years in the '90s, I never thought Goldman or anyone else was doing anything other than trying to maximize profit and bonus every time we traded.  That's the way it is, it's not even a question of ethical judgment.

I doubt very seriously that any Goldman client read that op ed and thought anything other than simple recognition.

Sat, 03/17/2012 - 22:15 | 2266271 williambanzai7
williambanzai7's picture

Actually, there are Goldman clients/Muppets who are surprised by this and actually expected more from their bankers. The problem is that Goldman sits up there on its high horse pretending that it is going to deliver to them.

200 WEST STREET

Sat, 03/17/2012 - 22:35 | 2266344 MacroAndCheese
MacroAndCheese's picture

The thing is, it's a red herring, and as I said, it's old news, at least it should be to anyone who reads the financial press.  It's the tip of the iceberg, William, and you know it.  But I don't want to go there now.

Sun, 03/18/2012 - 17:19 | 2267754 Zero Govt
Zero Govt's picture

so Mr McCheescake..

..you'd be ok with going to a gas station and paying top Dollar for 4 Star Premium and getting piss in your tank?

..and ordering a "Prime $40 fillet steak" and the waiter, having asked for payment upfront, giving you dog food in a dish?

Commerce is based on human relationships and trust you snivelling fraudulent sociopath

you and Blankfein should be in an asylum, not in society and never anywhere near a business or customers.. you're living up to your billing of being robbers of nations (other peoples money)

everyone nows your entire banking and finance industry is worthless unproductive sheisters living off others backs ...wished you'd gone bankrupt '08 because you smarmy scum are defo not worth saving 

Sat, 03/17/2012 - 23:10 | 2266431 williambanzai7
williambanzai7's picture

It is old news, but it still hasn't sunk in downtown. No trust, no confidence...no confidence, no market.

Sun, 03/18/2012 - 05:34 | 2266781 StychoKiller
StychoKiller's picture

Hence the massive outflows from mutual funds, week after week after week...sorry cheez, but the battle bots can fight with each other till hell freezes over, my wealth stays where I can keep an eye on it, from now on!

Sun, 03/18/2012 - 11:06 | 2267038 illyia
illyia's picture

++15.xx T

Sat, 03/17/2012 - 21:07 | 2266143 eddiebe
eddiebe's picture

Sounds like the author feels like fleecing his customers is the way to go. I suppose the Sax boyz and the author are reincarnations of the same white trash that was selling smallpox infested blankets to the native americans at a really good price. Look at how far we've come eh?

Sat, 03/17/2012 - 22:08 | 2266269 MacroAndCheese
MacroAndCheese's picture

Don't be a sap.  I said nothing of the sort.  Learn to read and think.

Sun, 03/18/2012 - 15:15 | 2267490 AbruptlyKawaii
AbruptlyKawaii's picture

you did say that; why dont you learn to write if that is not what you meant to actually write, or maybe we are all wrong and you, a certified cock sucking ASSHOLE is the smart one right??  again here's looking forward to you and your kids dying a very slow painful death and FUCK YOU!

you couldnt hack one shift as a busser??? you are a fucking pathetic douchebag loser!  cant hack real work so i guess ill rape people by pushing paper! that right there says more about you than anything you fucking degenerate diseased scumbag

Sun, 03/18/2012 - 09:17 | 2266890 XitSam
XitSam's picture

Imagine my surprise when I went to work for a restaurant, and I didn't get to start at the position I wanted but had to show my value and commitment by working at a lesser position and work my way up. And then Anthony Bourdain comes along and writes Kitchen Confidential as if it's news.

Sat, 03/17/2012 - 20:58 | 2266118 ItsDanger
ItsDanger's picture

Treating the customers like muppets would indicate ulterior motives.    Have you ever heard of the terms negligence?  misrepresentation?  etc. 

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