Why Do Clients Stay With Goldman?

Wall Street's elite gathered at The Core Club in New York Thursday evening for a conversation with author William D. Cohan to discuss his new book “Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World” moderated by the New York Times’ Andrew Ross Sorkin, author of "Too Big To Fail".

One of the key discussions of the night was how Goldman Sachs managed to get through the crisis better than any of their rivals. "Were they smarter? Did they cut corners? Or were they deceptive?"

"The suspicion on Wall Street was this notion that for a very long time, Goldman's 'franchise' was having great clients, who give them great ideas, and then they go and directly copy those ideas," Cohan said.

But when the question was raised as to why a client like John Paulson might stay with the firm as a client, despite having his best ideas "lifted," Cohan concluded that most clients have no choice but to continue doing business with Goldman .

"These guys are still the smartest guys on the Street. Nobody is going to eat their lunch," Cohan said.