Upcoming Issue of ai5000: Michael Lewis Says Customers [Expletived] By Goldman Sachs Should Be 'Embarrassed Rather Than Angry'

STAMFORD, Conn., March 15 /PRNewswire/ -- In the upcoming issue of ai5000 – scheduled to be published April 15 – The Big Short and Liar's Poker author Michael Lewis says that the many customers [expletived] by Goldman Sachs should be "embarrassed rather than angry." Institutional investors are partly at fault if they don't recognize that their trust is misused, he tells ai5000 in an "Interrogation" interview.

Lewis asks, rhetorically, why customers continue to deal with an organization that is "legendary for its duplicity." He muses, "You would think a firm that traded against its customers would be penalized, and instead the firm that trades against customers the most was rewarded."

(Mr. Lewis's views are not necessarily shared by ai5000. Asset International CEO Jim Casella wrote about Goldman's deserved "swagger" in August 2009 and ai5000 founder Charlie Ruffel will publish a counterpoint in the March/April issue.)

"Even in my day," Lewis explained to ai5000 contributing editor Joe Flood, "it was shocking the extent to which my job as a salesman was to get our bond traders or derivatives traders out of their [unsuccessful] positions and use the customers as the dumb money."

"It's a perversion of how capital markets are supposed to work," he added.

The Lewis interview also includes his thoughts on Paul Volcker and the future of financial services.

About ai5000

A quarterly online publication, ai5000 focuses on the 5,000 largest pools of capital in the world, across pension plans, sovereign wealth funds, endowments, foundations, insurance funds and other leading institutional investors. ai5000 is edited by Charles Ruffel, founder of Asset International and PLANSPONSOR, PLANADVISER and Global Custodian.

About Asset International

Asset International is a privately-held publisher and information provider to global pension funds, asset managers, financial advisers, banking service providers, and other financial institutions in the private and public sector. Asset International produces and distributes print and digital publications, conferences, research and data resources via its industry-leading brands PLANSPONSOR, PLANADVISER and Global Custodian. The company was acquired in January 2009 by Austin Ventures and has offices in New York, London and Stamford, CT.

SOURCE Asset International