The storied career that John C. Whitehead led over the past 70 years or so is virtually impossible to imagine on Wall Street today.
Mr. Whitehead, the former Goldman Sachs boss who died on Saturday at age 92, was not just instrumental in developing the global investment banking model that largely still exists. He also took on prominent positions in public service after he left.
Goldman was a 300-person firm specializing in commercial paper when he came aboard. By the time he left in 1984 to became a deputy secretary of state for President Reagan, Goldman had become an international equity, bonds and mergers powerhouse.
Mr. Whitehead later took on roles at charities and nonprofit groups, including the International Rescue Committee and the New York Boy Scouts. He was the first chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, set up to help rebuild the financial district after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. And he was still chairman of the Goldman Sachs Foundation when he passed away.
Such varied résumés used to be common for Wall Street’s leading lights. One of Mr. Whitehead’s predecessors, Sidney Weinberg, served in a number of important jobs for President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Mr. Whitehead successors, Robert Rubin and Henry M. Paulson Jr., each headed the Treasury Department. Another, Jon Corzine, became a New Jersey senator and governor.
But as the recent attempt by President Obama to nominate Antonio Weiss, a Lazard banker, to the third-ranking role at Treasury shows, such paths look obstructed now. Though Mr. Weiss was a card-carrying Democrat who had long supported liberal policies and worked for a firm that needed no public money in the financial crisis, his accession was scuttled by members of the president’s own party, led by Senator Elizabeth Warren. He instead became a counselor to Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew, a role that does not need congressional confirmation.
Bankers in large part have themselves to blame. The financial crisis left them looking reckless and willing to hold taxpayers hostage for their misdeeds. That included protégés of Mr. Whitehead like Mr. Rubin, who earned more than $100 million as chairman of the executive committee at Citigroup, which subsequently needed a $25 billion government bailout.
JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Goldman came in 87th, 91st and 100th in a recent Harris poll of corporate reputation for the 100 most visible companies. It will take years, maybe decades, to repair their credibility enough to produce the next John Whitehead from their ranks.
Antony Currie is an associate editor and Rob Cox is editor of Reuters Breakingviews. For more independent commentary and analysis, visit breakingviews.com.