Insider Finance - Business - Goldman Sachs partners are pissed

February 12, 2023

Welcome to the new Sunday edition of Insider Today! I’m Matt Turner, the editor in chief of business at Insider. 

If you’re receiving this email for the first time, hello! It’s a pleasure to be in your inbox. I’ve been publishing this newsletter for several years now, taking readers behind the scenes of our reporting in tech, finance, the economy, healthcare, media, and more. 

I’ve now joined forces with Nicholas Carlson’s daily newsletter. You’ll get the most fascinating stories of the day from him, Monday through Saturday. And I’ll be in your inbox each Sunday with a weekly roundup. Let me know what you think at insidertoday@insider.com.

— Matt Turner

On the agenda today:

• We’re seeing a tidal wave of overinflated job titles.

• There’s increasing unrest at the highest levels of Goldman Sachs. 

• AI is about to destroy web search as we know it. 

• There’s a deluge of crappy analysis from so-called Wall Street “experts.”

But first: Lara O’Reilly, our senior correspondent covering the advertising industry, looks ahead to the Super Bowl.

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Today’s “Celebrity Bowl”

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THIS WEEK'S STORIES

A tidal wave of overinflated job titles

iStock; George Marks, Sellwell, C.J. Burton/Getty images; Robyn Phelps/Insider

Inflation is everywhere these days — even in the workforce. Insider’s Aki Ito breaks down why grandiose job titles like “senior executive vice president” are suddenly all the rage.

According to a new study, early-career job titles have changed drastically in the past few years. Tech roles include “lead” in the title three times more now — and the number of “junior” roles has been cut in half. 

Why lofty job titles are everywhere you look

Read more:

• The millennial boss' guide to managing Gen Z, based on 5 stereotypes of the younger generation

Unrest at the highest levels in Goldman Sachs

Crains New York

There’s been a notable decline in morale at Goldman Sachs — and it’s gotten to the point where some partners are so concerned that they’ve discussed how they might get the board of directors to act on it, four people close to the situation told Insider’s Dakin Campbell.

While it’s not clear how widespread this discontent is — Goldman has some 400 partners — some partners are already talking about who might replace CEO David Solomon if it comes to that.

Inside the drama at Goldman Sachs

Read more:

• Goldman Sachs insiders fear widespread departures. Why the sour mood inside the firm has some pinning the blame on CEO David Solomon.
  
  
• Inside Goldman Sachs' annual partners meeting in Miami Beach — from the $1,500-a-night hotel rooms to the majestic oceanfront views

Google’s Bard is going to destroy online search

Tyler Le/Insider

Google’s search engine is about to change. Its chatbot “Bard,” the company’s answer to the popular AI tool ChatGPT that’s powering Microsoft’s new Bing, will provide conversational answers in addition to the long list of links you’re accustomed to. 

But these new chatbots aren’t actually intelligent. They lie. They don’t understand what they’re saying. They can only regurgitate things they’ve absorbed elsewhere. And sometimes, that stuff is wrong. Conversational answers generated automatically by chatbots may seem appealing, but they also make detecting misinformation and disinformation much more difficult.

How chatbots could obliterate a core element of human understanding

Read more:

• The inside story of how Microsoft caught up with Google on AI, and the unlikely executive who made it happen
  
  
• 7 ways to use ChatGPT at work to boost your productivity, make your job easier, and save a ton of time

Inside Wall Street’s gloom-and-doom racket

iStock; Robyn Phelps/Insider

At its best, Wall Street experts can translate the shifting sands of the economy into a useful investment view. But the economist Neil Dutta has noticed more and more analysts relying on prepackaged narratives to drum up fear about the direction of the economy and stock market.

It’s true that stocks haven’t done well over the past year. But since the onset of the pandemic, Dutta says there’s been a rise of alarmist analysts that rely on low-quality data to push people away from steady investments.

How Wall Street “experts” and scaremongers are costing investors money

Read more:

• The latest terrible news for the stock market: The economy is booming again

THIS WEEK'S QUOTE

— Anastasia Ricci, who spent $5,500 on a Chanel handbag with the money she saved by living with her parents.

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This edition was curated by Matt Turner, and edited by Dave Smith and Lisa Ryan. Get in touch: insidertoday@insider.com.