Late PM

Goldman late to party for alumni in highest places

Since the financial crisis, it has been a popular complaint that bankers are too influential in the corridors of power. Fingers often point at Goldman Sachs, sometimes nicknamed 'Government Sachs'. But it has taken until now for the Wall Street firm to be able to claim an alumnus who leads a national government - new Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

It is a matter of pride for the 146-year-old Goldman that some of its best and brightest end up in public service. Former Chief Executive Hank Paulson was US Treasury secretary under President George W Bush during the financial crisis that started in 2007. One of his predecessors at Goldman, Robert Rubin, held the same post under President Bill Clinton a decade earlier.

As for the world of public finance, current Bank of England Governor Mark Carney was at Goldman for 13 years and Mario Draghi, his counterpart at the European Central Bank, also worked at the firm.

Rivals' alumni have, however, beaten Goldman to the biggest government jobs. Former Citigroup high flier Shaukat Aziz took responsibility for more than 150 million citizens as Pakistan's prime minister between 2004 and 2007.

Meanwhile John Key, a former head of foreign exchange at Merrill Lynch, has for the past seven years been running 4.5 million-strong New Zealand. And Lionel Zinsou cut his teeth as an investment banker at Rothschild and then in private equity before becoming, in June this year, prime minister of Benin, an African state with a gross domestic product of $15 billion.

A couple of Goldman senior advisers have gone on to high office -Romano Prodi and Mario Monti both served as premier of Italy, for example. But Turnbull is the first fully fledged employee to do so. He ran the company's Australian operations between 1997 and 2001.

It's notable that two Antipodean countries, which largely avoided the post-crisis hangover that afflicted much of Europe and the United States, are the ones where ex-bankers have reached the pinnacle of power. It could be a while before the trend spreads to large Western democracies.