Lloyd Blankfein has an op-ed in POLITICO this morning. It's a call on politicians in Washington to do three things.

First though, he talks about how great America is, and how despite all the negativity, it's still the best place in the world to invest and so on.

As for the three things he wants to see Congress get its act together on:

• Reducing the deficit a la Bowles-Simpson.
• Promoting more skilled immigration.
• Investing in infrastructure.

These are probably among the least controversial suggestions in the world, and they're very useful in terms of offering an idea about how leaders of corporate America see our problems.

We found the op-ed via Ben White's Morning Money, in which this is also noted:

BLANKFEIN IN D.C. TODAY - The Goldman CEO will participate in a conversation-style interview with Carlyle Group's David Rubenstein, President of the Economic Club of Washington. The conversation will focus on the U.S. and global economies. Reception at 11:15 a.m., lunch at noon, remarks at 12:30 p.m. Reagan Building, Atrium Hall

Is Goldman back? Strong earnings, no whale trade, no LIBOR scandal. Looks like they might be crawling out from under a little bit.

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Earnings season is upon us, which means it's time for Wall Street to evaluate the big banks, and for CEOs to take a grilling from analysts.

Based on current and recent performance, please tell us which CEO is doing the best job running his bank.

Let us know why in the comments.

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Daily Intel's Kevin Roose posted a bunch of Instagram photos yesterday taken by people within Wall Street banks. 

He tracked down the images using the app's location tagging feature.

He also found Lloyd Blankfein's son Alex (@ablankfein), a former analyst at Goldman Sachs, on the popular photo sharing app.

We did a little more digging on Instagram and found Blankfein's daughter Rachel (@rachelblankfein) and his son Jonathan's (@jblankfein) accounts, too.

Rachel's account is now private and Jonathan, who appears to have just joined Instagram in the last couple of weeks, also has a private account. He hasn't even posted a picture, yet. However, Alex's account is still open.  

Check out a few images below.  

* Note: An earlier version of this post incorrectly identified Alex Blankfein as Andrew.  We apologize for the error. 

SEE ALSO: Wall Street's Instagrammers Are Getting Heat For Taking Pictures Inside The Banks >

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Before they were the masters of the universe, many of the biggest names in finance worked jobs outside of Wall Street. 

We're talking about things from bagging walnuts to selling peanuts to delivering newspapers and attending parking lots. 

Some of these jobs were things they did as kids to earn some extra spending money, while others were to pay for college or make an actual living.

We've compiled a list of nine big Wall Street names and detailed some of their earliest gigs before they started on The Street.   

Former Citigroup CEO/Chairman Sandy Weill sold New York City directory books.

First Job: In the mid-1950s, Weill tried selling New York City directory books, but apparently he spent more time playing arcade games instead.  

Wall Street Career: Weill scored his first gig on Wall Street working in the back office of a brokerage firm.

During his career, he worked his way to the top of The Street becoming the CEO/Chairman of Citigroup.  

Weill, who is credited as being the father of the financial supermarket, recently made waves with his call to break up the big banks. 

Source: San Francisco Chronicle 

Warren Buffett sold chewing gum and Coca-Colas and delivered newspapers.

First Job(s): Starting at age 6, Buffett would go door to door and sell packs of chewing gum.  His other door to door sales stints included selling magazines and Coca-Cola's.  He also ran a newspaper delivery route.

Wall Street Career: Buffett (a.k.a. "The Oracle of Omaha") is the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway and is widely considered one of the most successful investors. 

According to Forbes, Buffett has a net worth of $44 billion. 

Source: The FT

T. Boone Pickens ran a newspaper route during his teenage years.

First Job: Growing up in Oklahoma, T. Boone Pickens delivered newspapers as a teenager. He was able to increase his newspaper sales by expanding his route through acquiring surrounding ones. 

Wall Street Career: Pickens is the chairman of BP Capital Management and he's also the author of his namesake plan for U.S. energy independence "The Pickens Plan." 

Forbes estimates Pickens has a net worth of about $1.4 billion. 

Source: BoonePickens.com 

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A group of illustrators have conceptualized a deck of playing cards, dubbed "52 Shades of Greed", that lambastes Wall Street execs and politicians for their roles in the financial crisis.

"52 Shades of Greed is a deck of playing cards bearing illustrations of the people and financial institutions whose lust for money took the rest of us for a ride toward economic collapse," the Alternative Banking Group of Occupy Wall Street said in a release.

The creators are currently hosting a fundraiser for the project. They said they hope to cut 1,000 decks to give out during Occupy Wall Street's one year anniversary on September 17th. 

Marc Scheff, the art director for 52 Shades of Greed, has allowed us to run some of the artwork from the 26 professional illustrators who participated in the slides that follow.  

Queen of Clubs Erin Callan

Art by: Alex Fine

Queen of Diamonds Ina Drew

Art by: Vicky Yarova

King of Diamonds Ben Bernanke

Art by: Jonathan Calugi

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Recently, we read New York Magazine's must-read, can't-put-it-down piece on New York City's public housing projects called 'The Land That Time And Money Forgot.'

You're probably asking yourself, how does this relate to Wall Street? We're getting there.

As you may or may not know, Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO of Goldman Sachs, grew up in a project in East New York (Brooklyn) called the Linden Houses.

That was back in the 50s and 60s before the neighborhood was known for being one of the most dangerous in the city. Maybe that's why, as New York Magazine's article uncovered, Blankfein gets pretty nostalgic for the place.

From NY Magazine:

Son of a postal clerk and a receptionist at a burglar-alarm factory, Blankfein had grown up right there, at 295 Cozine Avenue, a redbrick building more or less exactly like the other eighteen redbrick buildings at the Linden Houses. That was in the fifties and sixties, before the white people moved out of the projects and East New York became one of the city’s most dangerous neighborhoods. Still, the Goldman CEO apparently retained affection for his childhood home, once sending a post to the East New York Project, a website for people nostalgic for the days of egg creams and spaldeens. It said: “Graduate of Jefferson (’71), Gershwin (’68), P.S. 306 (’65) and the Linden Projects. Currently reside in Manhattan with wife Laura and three kids. Lloyd Blankfein lloyd.blankfein@gs.com.”

Makes us feel kind of warm and funny inside.

Read the full piece at New York Magazine>

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Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein spoke at a sold-out breakfast at the Canadian Club of Toronto yesterday.

We've transcribed an excerpt from Blankfein's conversation with Royal Bank of Canada's CEO Gordon Nixon.

You can watch the entire video here >

Gordon Nixon: "Moving on to the social implications of what has occurred over the last five years.  The way I describe it to my kids is that our generation, you and I are in the same generation, 'we had an incredible lengthy party and we're now suffering from a hangover'..."

Lloyd Blankfein: "I'm sorry. This is how you talk to your kids?" 

[Audience laughter]

Nixon: "We're now turning to our kids and we're saying 'It's your job to clean up and to pay the bill.'"

Blankfein: "I'll do the same thing and say 'Gord is suffering from a hangover.'"

[Audience laughter] 

Nixon: "You look at the next generation.  You have really high youth unemployment.  In Europe, I mean the numbers are staggering and even in the U.S., particularly if you look at the real youth unemployment numbers there are well into the high double digits.  You've go the Occupy movement.  A lot of social unrest.  The inequality issue.  Obviously, Goldman has been at the center of that discussion and debate.  What is your take on the social implications on what has happened in the financial services industry and the global economy and that plays out and what the impact of tha might be in terms of political flexibility going forward?" 

Blankfein: "I think the last question is really punch line, really draws out the punch line.  I'd say, look, let me just say it has not just been the last five years.  To some extent, we're stewards of the economy.  To some, we're not really, we're marketeers and play our role in it.  

"But you know in good times, we walk around, to some extent, maybe this is a bad analogy.  If you're going to be the Samurai class, if you lose a war you've got to be prepared to take the consequences.  If you're going to get the benefits when things are good because you carry yourself in a certain kind of way you're going to have to and it's not unfair for people to ask you to bear the brunt of the system you were part of.  

"It's not just five years.  If you look at the widening of inequality in the United States, it's been a march for thirty years and so people, to some extent, I don't think there's a lot of social unrest in the United States.  Maybe people worry there will be more and I don't want to dare anything.  I think it's appropriate to be nervous, but don't forget the United States has a political system and you can vote and have access and peoples' voices are heard.... .That appropriately takes starch out of it because people can express themselves at the ballot box and they do.

"You don't need to have social unrest per se to recognize that the two goals of the financial system and the economic system, not just the financial system, but the whole economic and production system should be to expand the wealth of the world and to distribute it fairly.  And the two are linked, but they're totally separate because if you were the richest country in the world and wealth was disproportionate you wouldn't have a stable society. And I can tell you have a lot of stable societies that are just stable and deadly poor.  So you need to achieve both and I think in the United States, over the last generation or two, we have been much better about generating wealth and much less good about distributing it in a way.  And I'm not saying, no one's going to accuse me of being a socialist, and I'm not.  And I don't believe in wealth redistribution over producing.  And if you believe in production, you have to believe in incentives and the consequences of giving people incentives, they have to bear the benefits and the fruits of it.  

"But over the long term, if the system works well it should accomplish both goals and it hasn't accomplished enough of the second goal in the right way and that's what the distress is over and different things.  If you're on the front of people minds and different people will get disproportionate. I"m not saying that attention that the financial institutions get, or our institutions per se, or us per se is unfair.  It's of course disproportionate relative and it's the nature of things and that happened after the Depression...

"And I think certainly, for me, it's very distracting to say the least, but I don't want to suggest we're repelling the notion of it because it's unfair.  It's just disproportionate.  It's fair to the extent that we are fiduciaries in some part for the financial system and it hasn't worked well enough for everybody.  We have to go out and have a good conversation and dialogue recommending changes to it and get engaged.  Now, the trauma in the United States was so recent and so powerful that we're not necessarily having a good conversation or dialogue...People count the number of times you visit the White House or go in this building as if people who manage and regulate the economy are doing something wrong if they talk to the private sector leaders of the economy.  A certain amount of craziness has to dissipate and we have to engage in a very, very serious conversation about something that affects all our well being.  

Nixon:  "'The CEO of Goldman a Socialist.'  That would be actually a pretty good headline." 

Blankfein: "I've seen every other headline."

[Audience Laughter]

Nixon: "That's true." 

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We feel like we know Louis Bacon, Steve Schwarzman and Jamie Dimon to a certain extent because we read about them in the news all the time.

But we really don't know much about their wives at all, and that feels a little odd.

We've found that many of the hedge fund honchos, private equity titans and bank CEOs are married to some really remarkable women.

During our research, we found fashion designer, an economist, several entrepreneurs and philanthropists. 

Now let's meet Wall Street's wives.

James Gorman's wife

Name: Penny Gorman (Pendleton Dedman)

About: She graduated from Smith College and worked in investment banking, according to a wedding announcement in the New York Times.

Jamie Dimon's wife

Name: Judith Dimon (Judith Ellen Kent)

About: Jamie Dimon and Judith met while they were at Harvard Business School.  They were married in 1983, according to a New York Times' wedding announcement.  

She's earned her bachelor's degree from Tulane University and her master's degree in organization psychology from Catholic University.  

The Dimon's have three daughters -- Julia, Laura and Kara Leigh. 

Lloyd Blankfein's wife

Name: Laura Blankfein (Laura Susan Jacobs)

About: She graduated from the Fieldston School and magna cum laude from Barnard College, and received her law degree from Georgetown University, according to an engagement announcement in the New York Times. 

She's a former corporate lawyer and worked at Phillips, Nizer, Benjamin, Krim & Ballon in New York. 

The Blankfein's have three children -- Alex, Jonathan and Rachel. 

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Lloyd Blankfein is clearly tired of everyone in Washington kicking the can down the road when it comes to the fiscal cliff. CNN has a clip of him getting a little heated about it during the Clinton Global Initiative.

How heated (from CNN):

"After the election regardless of who wins and regardless of where the compromise gets set, people who've been pouting for 18 months and holding their breath aren't going to want to do that for another four years...but.. there is a substantial risk that we won't get action."

Basically, he just called everyone in Washington a petulant child. Watch the video below:

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The hour when the U.S. tips over the fiscal cliff is getting closer. Meanwhile, politicians are focused on election day.

Wall Street was worried, now it's terrified.

According to Politico, Wall Street CEOs have turned their fear into action. JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein and more have signed on to a multi-million dollar ad campaign to build public support for a budget deal and force Congress to enact something balanced — one that looks something like the Bowles-Simpson compromise.

In short: The CEOs want legislators to stop kicking the can down the road.

From Politico:

“Imagine what kind of stimulus it would be if politicians just reached some kind of long-term budget agreement to eliminate all this uncertainty?” Goldman Sachs chief Lloyd Blankfein told POLITICO in an interview. “It’s not that it’s easy to do. It will require some political sacrifice on both sides. But the solutions are so clearly within our means."

They're even including raising taxes in that solution. Naturally, that pits them against some powerful forces in Washington — namely, the Tea Party and anti-tax activist Grover Nordquist, who for years has had conservative lawmakers sign a pledge to never raise taxes.

Here's what Nordquist had to say about this (from Politico):

“The Paul Ryan plan brings the budget into balance, is not a net tax increase and reduces spending as a part of GDP and pays off the national debt as you go out the door,” Americans for Tax Reform's Grover Norquist said. “This idea that you have to trade entitlement reform for a tax increase is put forward by Democrats who when they had power didn’t do entitlement reform and don’t want to do entitlement reform. Democrats just want GOP fingerprints on a tax increase."

Detractors, of course, say that the Ryan budget is incapable of fixing our fiscal problems because it doesn't raise revenues.

On top of that problem, there's a credibility issue. In the past few months, every time a Wall Streeter has gone down to DC, it's answer for something terrible that's happened (think: Jamie Dimon after JP Morgan's massive trading loss or John Corzine answering for missing customer funds at MF Global).

Either way, good luck gentlemen, you're going to need it.

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Goldman Sachs's investigation into a former employee's allegations that the bank's culture is "toxic" has not found evidence to support the claims.

The bank's investigation has shared its findings with the board of Goldman, according to the Financial Times. Goldman began the investigation last March after Greg Smith, a former derivative salesman, used a scathing resignation letter published in the New York Times newspaper to attack the bank.

In it, Mr Smith, who was based in London for the final years of his career at Goldman, said that bankers described clients as "muppets" and did not look out for their interests.

Dubbed "the muppet hunt", the investigation examined thousands of emails but 99pc of the references to muppet were to the film of that name.

However, one email did refer to clients as "muppets" but the investigation concluded it was part of an attempt to explain a trade rather than mislead a customer, the FT reported .

Since the sensational letter, Goldman has embarked on a major public relations campaign that has seen chairman and chief executive Lloyd Blankfein give a series of interviews. However, the bank will face renewed scrutiny when Mr Smith publishes an account of his time at Goldman later this month.

Goldman publishes its third-quarter results next week.

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Lately, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein has been talking to the media... a lot.

Most of what he's been talking about has to do with the precarious situation our economy is facing — the fiscal cliff.

That's why he was just on CNBC with Senators Erskin Bowles and Alan Simpson, the architects of a budget compromise that a lot of Wall Street CEOs are championing right now.

We liveblogged the whole thing below in case you missed it.

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Goldman Sachs' CEO Lloyd Blankfein is not really concerned about Greg Smith's upcoming tell-all book, he said on CNBC in an interview with Steve Liesman. 

In case you need a refresher, Smith is the former Goldman vice president who resigned publicly via a scathing op-ed in the New York Times that ripped into the bank's culture.

He's now coming out with a memoir called "Why I Left Goldman Sachs", which is said to include things like shenanigans in a Las Vegas hot tub and excesses of the real estate boom. 

"I'm not really concerned about the revelations," Blankfein said, adding, he's "not looking forward to the hoopla."  

Blankfein, who said he's never even spoken to Smith, said that the former Goldman employee didn't really have any "sharp accusations."

They were "soft things" like culture, Blankfein explained.  

Blankfein said they surveyed Smith's reviews and couldn't find anything.  

He added that they had to report this to the board and that the regulators were interested, but Goldman could find "nothing of consequence."  

SEE ALSO: Here Comes The Juicy Memoir From Former Goldman Employee Greg Smith >

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The Wall Street Journal's Liz Rappaport has a terrifying scoop: former Goldman Sachs employee Greg Smith claims in his book he saw CEO Lloyd Blankfein naked.

The book will not hit bookstores for another week, but photocopies of some parts are already circulating on Wall Street, she says.

Here is her stripped-down summary of the encounter: 

Mr. Smith tells of one near-encounter when he saw Mr. Blankfein, sans clothes, after taking a shower at the gym. Mr. Blankfein was “air-drying,” Mr. Smith writes, something Mr. Smith took not as a display of power but as something men of an older generation tend to do. 

Rappaport has a lot more details from the book. Read it on WSJ.com.

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Lloyd Blankfein was just on CNBC talking start-ups — definitely a positive topic in our current dreary economic climate — so host Carlos Quintanilla just had to bring up the elephant in the room.

Greg Smith, obviously.

He asked Blankfein what monetary or reputational damage the book caused Goldman Sachs, and here's what Blankfein said:

"On his book.... it was jarring, we had no notice of it (the initial op-ed).... But the press drummed it up and... fo course it was damaging to us and jarring to  ourselves. We spent a ton of time trying to parse through the op-ed to find out what charges there were...I have anxiety about these things...We checked on everything exhaustively. We didn't find anything.... and when the book came out I think a lot of people who reviewed the book couldn't find anything...No one can flagellate themselves as well as GS can... and at the end of the day... we're probably going to be a better firm anyway.... As far as the book itself, I think the consensus of those who read the book is that there was nothing there... But you know what, anything that makes us more introspective and review our processes is better for us."

Of course, Quintanilla asked Blankfein if he'd read the book, and the answer to that was no.

"...a couple of the reviewers who have read the book have said you might want to save that hour and a half for something better," Blankfein added.

Burn.

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It's election day and Reuters is reporting that voters in New Jersey and New York are facing long lines and confusion following Superstorm Sandy. 

Even Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein couldn't wait around any longer this morning when poll workers in Manhattan's Upper West Side were having trouble finding the ballot cards.

From Reuters: 

Voting at the YMCA on West 63rd Street in Manhattan was delayed because election officials could not find the ballot cards and scanners were not working properly. Among those arriving to vote there was Lloyd Blankfein, the chief executive of investment banking powerhouse Goldman Sachs. He left before voting there began.

Of course, we're sure he'll get his vote in sometime today since the polls in New York close at 9 p.m. 

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Following Hurricane Sandy, Goldman Sachs pledged $10 million in relief funds consisting of a $5 million donation to clean up and recovery efforts and $5 million in loans to small businesses impacted the storm.

Aside from donating money, the bank's employees and executives have also been pitching in with relief efforts.

Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein spent his Saturday helping with Hurricane Sandy relief efforts in The Rockaways.  You can see him in his jeans in the photo below from @GoldmanSachs. 

The bank's employees have also spent time in Staten Island and New Jersey helping package food for victims of the storm.

What's more is when much of Lower Manhattan was left with out power, the lights at Goldman continued to shine bright.  As a result, Goldman opened its doors at its 200 West Street headquarters to allow neighbors to charge their cell phones and get some bottled water. 

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Reuters' Lauren Tara LaCapra reports that Goldman Sachs will name its newest partners tomorrow morning.

However, the bank is expected to name the smallest partner class since going public in 1999.  

In 2010, 110 people made it and this time around only 70 are expected to be selected, according to the Wall Street Journal's Liz Rappaport and Tom McGinty.

Those who will be named to the highly coveted positions should receive a phone call from Lloyd Blankfein or Gary Cohn around 8:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday, according to Reuters.

Those who did not make partner will be notified sometime today. 

What's more is the perks and the paycheck are not what they used to be.  That being said, partners still get a bigger portion of the bonus pool. 

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Tomorrow Goldman Sachs will tap its next "partnership managing director" class. 

The bank is expected to pick around 70 new partners, according to the Wall Street Journal.  That's significantly lower than the 110 tapped in 2010. 

All that means is that an already exclusive club is even harder to get into — becoming a partner at Goldman is one of the most highly coveted titles on The Street. 

Here's what we know about being a Goldman partner: 

1. It's an intense two-year process to pick the partners: Partners are selected every two years in an extremely secretive process called "cross-ruffing" (it comes from the card game bridge).  Cross-ruffing is where a candidate is intensely analyzed by current partners and other bank employees on whether or not they deserve the partnership.  There are no interviews, according to Reuters' Lauren Tara LaCapra.
2. Lloyd Blankfein personally calls you with the news: Reuters reports that either Lloyd Blankfein or Gary Cohn will give the banker a call to let them know they've made partner. Those who didn't make the cut are told the day before. 
3. It's supposed to be an incredible feeling: One former partner told eFinancial News, "Don’t tell my wife this, but being made partner was the greatest moment of my life."
4. Being a partner means getting a nice paycheck: One of the biggest benefits of being a partner at Goldman is the lucrative paycheck.  Partners make a base salary of $900,000, according to the WSJ. 
5. They get a large chunk of the bonus pool: In addition to the base salary, about 20% of the bank's bonus pool is divvied up amongst the 400-plus Goldman partners, according to two former Goldman employees.
6. There are other perks, too: Back in 2010, the New York Times' Susanne Craig reported that partners are given access to investment opportunities not available to the other employees.  They would also get tables reserved for them at high end New York restaurants.  
7. It's a great way to get to the C-Suite: Being a partner can give someone an "inside track to the top jobs" at the bank, according to the NYTimes.  
8. Or to a higher position off Wall Street: Not only could being a partner lead to the C-Suite at Goldman, but think of the possibilities off The Street.  For example, Hank Paulson, who became partner in 1982 and later served as CEO from 1999 to 2006, went on to become the Treasury Secretary. 
9. Partners can be 'de-partnered': That being said, the bad news is you can be stripped of your partnership in a process known as being "de-partnered,"according to the New York Times.  While many who have been de-partnered remain at the firm, most people wouldn't even know they've lost that status and the nice bonus that comes with it, the report said. 

We're definitely looking forward to meeting the new partner class tomorrow. 

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It's partner day at Goldman Sachs! 

This morning, the bank is expected to tap 70 new "partnership managing directors", according to the Wall Street Journal. That's a much smaller class compared to the 110 tapped in 2010.

Phone calls from Lloyd Blankfein and Gary Cohn letting the bankers know they've made partner should happen around 8:30 a.m. ET, according to Reuters. 

Those who didn't make the cut were informed yesterday.

Goldman partners are picked during a very intense and secretive two-year selection process.  

To be made partner is seen as a very, very big deal. 

One former Goldman partner told eFinancial News, "Don’t tell my wife this, but being made partner was the greatest moment of my life.

Best of luck, everyone! 

SEE ALSO: A Small Group of Goldmanites Are About To Experience A Life-Changing Event -- Here's What They Can Expect > 

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