Goldman, Goldman Everywhere

The Bible tells us that the meek will inherit the earth, but a look around Washington, Wall Street, New Jersey's governor's mansion and even this week's surprise A-Rod/Yankee negotiations, and perhaps the earthly world is offering up a counterpoint: Goldman Sachs(GS Quote) will inherit the earth.

Goldman Sachs is one of the few firms -- on Wall Street or off -- for which The Business Press Maven has had fairly unwavering confidence in the collective brain trust, right down to their ability in their off hours to get A-Rod and the Yanks to kiss and make up. I also admire the tradition of moving on from those big bonuses to making wider contributions to society. As soon as I can snag myself some of those big bonuses, I'll move on too.

But despite the firm's strength, investors still have to stay on their toes when someone with Goldman DNA gets appointed to a new post. The business media, always apt to deify newly appointed CEOs and chairman, are doubly gullible when that CEO or chairman is "of Goldman Sachs," as they say.

We saw this recently with Robert Rubin, written into an infallible hero put at the helm of Citibank, even though he has spent much of the past decade failing at Citibank. And we saw it again -- to a lesser, but still meaningful degree -- when John Thain, former Goldman co-president, was appointed il tata di tuti capa at Merrill Lynch(MER Quote) this week....