Goldman Sachs: The Culture of Success.(Review)

By Lisa Endlich

When Goldman Sachs & Co., a leading Wall Street private banking house with global connections, announced its 1993 pretax profits, an editor of a left-wing British newspaper quipped: "What's the difference between Tanzania and Goldman Sachs? One is an African country that makes $2.2 billion a year and shares it among 25 million people. The other is an investment bank that makes $2.6 billion and shares most of it among 161 people."

Lisa Endlich, a former vice president and foreign exchange trader with the financial firm, has written a partly historical, partly administrative, but always fascinating study of one of the great success stories in American investment banking. Her account of Goldman Sachs's early years is …