Lloyd Blankfein

Laura Blankfein, the wife of Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, paid $701,000 for Suite 807 ("suite" being the euphemism for a staff apartment) at 15 Central Park West, city records show.

The Observer's Max Abelson reported that the Blankfeins closed on a 16th-floor duplex condo in the building back in January when the extent of the subprime mortgage crisis' impact on Wall Street was finally becoming clear. The couple signed the contract for the yet-to-be built apartment two days before Mr. Blankfein was promoted to CEO at Goldman in May 2006, at the height of the Manhattan real estate market.

Since then, the national market has tanked and New York's is stagnant. But while other Wall Street banking firms are writing down their balance sheets as quickly as they once did year-end bonus checks, Goldman Sachs, with Mr. Blankfein at the helm, has remained largely unscathed.  read more »

George W. Bush says he won’t raise taxes to pay for his war. “I strongly oppose that.  read more »

Goldman Sachs has just announced that it has chosen Lloyd Blankfein to replace Hank Paulson as its new Chairman and CEO -- and from a quick scan of his political-giving history, it looks like he won't taking over his predecessor's duties as star GOP fund-raiser.

In addition to giving $3,000 to Mr. Bush's 2004 presidential opponent, John Kerry, and $1000 to his 2000 opponent, Al Gore, he has given regularly and abundantly to Democratic candidates and committees over the years. In 2004, he gave nearly $30,000 to blue state causes like Hillary Clinton, Tom Daschle, and the DNC. And in this cycle alone he has given $25,000 to the Chuck Schumer's Democratic Sentorial Campaign Committee.

We guess this means he isn't in any danger of being tapped for a White House post anytime soon.

-- Lizzy Ratner