Bérénice Bejo

The parade of senior Goldman executives who testified before Congress after the case arose seemed to put a public face on what had been a Nike Air Max broader sense of distrust of Wall Street in the aftermath of the financial crisis, focusing ever more attention on a firm whose patriarchs have always been adamant about having high standards. Wall Street, of course, has always sought profits — but if greed were to be countenanced, it should be long-term greed, not short-term greed, in the words of Gus Levy, who led Goldman Sachs in the 1960s and ’70s. With long-term Air Yeezys greed, money was made with clients, not from them. Nostalgic as it might seem, seasoned players at Goldman and other top-tier firms insist there was a time when long-term greed was the order of the day, at least publicly and often privately, too. But over the last 25 years, as the incentive structure metamorphosed, longtime bankers and scholars say, Wall Street has been remade in ways that Mr. Levy would hardly recognize. The shift in Air Yeezy Shoes incentives has come after the evolution of the business itself, industry insiders and other experts said. Partnerships, where the leaders of the firm had their own fortunes on the line, became publicly traded giants. Proprietary trading evolved Kanye West Sneakers into a Midas-like source of money, challenging investment banking and client relationships. And with a free hand, thanks to Washington, investment banks could take on ever more risk, amplified by debt.