Posted By thestatedtruth.com on November 19, 2009

Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) — Meredith Whitney, the analyst who cut her rating on Goldman Sachs Group Inc. last month, said the bank has lost some of its top-performing employees as executives left to start their own investment companies.

“Goldman’s lost a tremendous amount of talent going to set up their own hedge funds,” Whitney, founder of Meredith Whitney Advisory Group, said today in an interview on Bloomberg Radio. “It became a scary prospect of having the government determine what you make,” said Whitney, who also said today that bank stocks are “grossly overvalued.”

Whitney said valuations for bank shares are too high. “People are expecting something great to happen in 2010, and I think they are going to be severely disappointed,” she said.

Consumer and small business spending won’t rebound soon, Whitney said, estimating about $2.7 trillion in credit lines will be cut. She said she expects this year’s holiday season to be at best “flat” versus last year.

More at http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a3MG10bCk2OE&pos=5

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