The Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street This Week

Langone Job Blender or Foes?

1. Defender of the Faith

Let's get this straight. Ken Langone's calling something unseemly?

That's how the Wall Street big shot recently characterized Goldman Sachs' (GS Quote) role in the pending merger of New York Stock Exchange and electronic trading house Archipelago (AX Quote).

On the one hand, Langone -- an investment banker and Home Depot (HD Quote) founder -- has a point. He is far from the only one criticizing the investment bank.

After all, Goldman took the unusual step of advising both Archipelago and the NYSE in their pending merger. Some also point to the fact that NYSE CEO John Thain came over from Goldman. The investment bank's dual role strikes us as pretty brazen, notwithstanding Goldman flack Lucas van Praag's comment that "life is filled with conflicts, some real, some imagined."

He went on to tell Bloomberg that "in a situation where there is total transparency and the clients are happy, one would've thought the acid test had been passed."

By the way, Goldman owns 21 member seats at the NYSE, which have risen by $20 million in value because of the deal. Goldman and its subsidiaries also own 15% of Archipelago, a stake whose value has risen by $84 million. And Archipelago paid Goldman a $3.5 million advisory fee as well.

But what's really dumb is Ken Langone posing as defender of all that is right and good in business. After all, wasn't Langone the loudest backer of Dick Grasso's $139 million payday?

Wasn't Langone's Invemed charged by securities regulators with unlawful profit-sharing activities involving hot IPOs between late 1999 and early 2000? Wasn't it Langone who once said to Fortune, "I'm nuts, I'm rich, and boy, do I love a fight. I'm going to make them s--- in their pants." He went on to say that when he got done with such captains of industry they'd "wish they were in a Cuisinart -- at high speed."

Sure, Invemed maintains it did nothing wrong and is fighting the NASD charges. Sure, Grasso and Langone defend the bald guy's massive payday. Sure, there's no law against swearing in magazine interviews.

And there's no reason anyone should care about Ken Langone's definition of seemly.