(Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc., under fire in Washington for setting aside billions of dollars for bonuses a year after getting a taxpayer bailout, is joining Warren Buffett to provide assistance to 10,000 U.S. small businesses.
The $500 million charitable effort coincides with one of the Obama administration’s top economic priorities: spurring hiring at smaller companies. The initiative aims to provide assistance -- ranging from counseling to obtaining funding -- to 10,000 businesses. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is the largest shareholder in New York-based Goldman Sachs.
Goldman Sachs, the most profitable securities firm in Wall Street history, is trying to dispel criticism from lawmakers and pundits who portray the company as the greedy face of a financial industry whose excessive risk-taking fueled the credit crisis. Unlike competitors that make home loans and provide small-business credit lines, more than 90 percent of Goldman Sachs’s pretax earnings this year came from trading and principal investments.
“Small businesses play a vital role in creating jobs and growth in America’s economy,” Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs’s 55-year-old chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement yesterday. “We are pleased to work with our partners in this initiative to support small business owners, particularly in those underserved communities.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aut.kPaGENTQ
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