Goldman Investor Gets Views Of CEO -- WSJ
May 06 2019 - 03:02AM
Dow Jones News
By Liz Hoffman
This article is being republished as part of our daily
reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S.
print edition of The Wall Street Journal (May 6, 2019).
When Goldman Sachs Group Inc. opened its annual meeting Thursday
to Q&A, Mindee Wasserman beelined for the microphone.
Down for the day from Boston, Ms. Wasserman wasn't there to
needle Goldman on climate change or diversity. She wanted Chief
Executive David Solomon's take on Brexit.
Oh, and whether the disappearance of the Libor benchmark
interest rate would cause millions of loans to default to the prime
rate -- which she points out, is almost 3 percentage points
higher.
Ms. Wasserman has been a fixture at Goldman's annual shareholder
meeting, an otherwise uneventful affair where directors are easily
re-elected and executives trudge through a few slides.
She says she owns about 100 shares of Goldman and has "on and
off" since its IPO, 20 years ago Friday. "Why not get their take on
what's happening in the world?" she said.
In past years, she asked Mr. Solomon's predecessor, Lloyd
Blankfein, his views on oil prices, tax cuts, the 2016 presidential
election, the Paris climate accord, China policy, interest-rate
increases, the Federal Reserve's balance sheet, the troubling shape
of the yield curve, and what should happen to Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac. "Smart questions," Mr. Blankfein said in 2017.
The next year she noted Goldman's participation in some hostile
takeovers that were reshaping telecommunications and media, two
industries she says she invests in. "Hostility is a gradient," Mr.
Blankfein responded.
It's all fodder for Ms. Wasserman, who holds degrees in business
and law, manages her own money and publishes a personal-finance
newsletter on her website.
So what does Mr. Solomon think about Brexit? He said he doesn't
expect the U.K. to leave the European Union without a replacement
deal, a potentially disruptive outcome known as a "hard Brexit." As
for Libor, he expects the industry to settle on a suitable
replacement that won't break millions of loan contracts.
Ms. Wasserman found Mr. Solomon's comments "fairly thoughtful,"
she said on the sidelines on Goldman's meeting in New Jersey
Thursday.
She only stumped him once. When she asked how Brexit would
affect a U.K.-heavy ETF offered by Goldman's asset-management arm,
he responded "candidly you're more knowledgeable about that than I
am" and promised to have someone get back to her.
Write to Liz Hoffman at liz.hoffman@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 06, 2019 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)
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