What will be the legacy of Lloyd Blankfein? Let's assume for the moment that the CEO of Goldman Sachs will stay on the job until some point in the future when he will be free to step down unencumbered by an assumption that he was forced for regulatory reasons. That will allow for a retrospective in his stint as the head of the most controversial bank of our time.

Bloomberg weighs in with an early piece that looks at his stewardship. It's fair to say that he led the bank through some amazing times, and when the industry was sizzling, no bank sizzled like Goldman Sachs. Profitability soared, as did the bank's general reputation. It separated itself from its peers impressively. "Blankfein's business model was ideal for a period of high leverage and low regulation, producing average annual profits more than double those achieved under his predecessor, Henry M. Paulson."

But then came the financial crunch, and the bank's trading and proprietary investment-driven model stalled a bit. And that revealed a lot about the bank. The firm has promised a return on equity of 20 percent. In the first half of the year, Goldman Sachs's return on equity fell to 8 percent, or 10 percent excluding the cost of repurchasing preferred stock from Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway. That compares with 13 percent in the comparable period a year ago.

The disappointing second-quarter results suggest that Blankfein's formula for success may not hold as it once did. But the results also show how hard it is to transition to something else. In some ways, some might suggest that reducing the firm's dependence on trading is a good thing, even as the financial community pillories the bank for its poor FICC performance and a declining VAR, suggesting that they want the bank to take more risk. If Blankfein were to leave right now, people would question whether he left the firm in good shape. He may not enough time to shape the answer to his liking.

For more:
- here's the article

Related articles:
The real reason why Goldman Sachs CEO Blankfein can't retire  
The real front runner for the Goldman Sachs CEO job  
New York Times defends Goldman Sachs CEO