London correspondent – have in common Mario Draghi , Mario Monti , and Lucas Papademos ? The new president of the European Central Bank, the Chairman of the Board appointed the new Italian and Greek Prime Minister belong to varying degrees to the “Government Sachs” European. The U.S. investment bank has indeed woven in Europe a unique network of influence for ages sedimented through a dense network, such as underground public.

In any contest, you need a hierarchy. The first prize went to Mario Draghi, of course, vice-chairman of Goldman Sachs in Europe between 2002 and 2005. Named a partner, he is responsible “companies and sovereign.” In this way , one of the missions is to sell the financial product “swap” to cover a portion of sovereign debt, which helped make up the Greek accounts. Then Mario Monti, advisor International since 2005. Came third Lucas Papademos, who comes to be appointed prime minister of Greece, who was Governor of the Central Bank Hellenic between 1994 and 2002, who participated in this respect to the operation of faking accounts perpetrated by GS. The manager of the Greek debt is also a Petros Christodoulos , a former trader for the firm.

Two other trucks take the upper hand in the defenestration of the euro, Otmar Issing , former president of the Bundesbank and Jim O’Neill, the inventor of the concept of BRICS, the acronym for emerging markets with high potential growth (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). Former president of Goldman Sachs International where he remained a director, Irishman Peter Sutherland has played a key role in the rescue of Ireland. Finally, Paul Deighton , who spent 22 years at Goldman Sachs, is executive director of the organizing committee of the London Olympics in 2012. The red lantern because everyone knows that sport is like friendship standout.

Yet, beyond appearances, the network of influence that has made its power before or during the political turmoil in financial 2008 has lost its effectiveness. Indeed, the old accomplices maintained by the former senior central bankers mobilized to pull the strings appear to be less useful against politicians sensitive to the unpopularity of financial professionals held responsible for the crisis. Where Goldman Sachs could easily exert his talents, a series of cases – Greece, speculation against the Euro, the Abacus scandal which was involved the French goldmanien Tourre – put him back in the public.

The address book is useful but not sufficient by itself a complex and technical financial world and facing a new generation of industrial least steeped in respect for the establishment. The European managers set out to conquer the world have emancipated the Crusaders of high finance style Goldman Sachs. The quest for value of the shareholder, the requirements of transparency of accounts and the imperatives of foreign expansion blunt the “network effect”. Finally, become more demanding about the quality and independence of business consulting, European customers, but not limited to requiring compliance with a minimum of ethics.

And that’s where the rub about Goldman Sachs. Because the bank likes to put his men never let down the mask. That is why his henchmen hide this relationship when they give an interview or conduct an official mission (as was the case of Monti who has been entrusted in 2010 a study on the single European market by the President of the Commission, José Manuel Barroso).

Mario Draghi asserts that took office in 2002, it had nothing to see with makeup accounts Greek orchestrated two years earlier by the bank. And resigned in 2005, one year before Goldman Sachs sell a part of the “swap” in question to the National Bank of Greece, the first commercial bank in the country, headed by a former Goldmanien, Petros Christodoulos today head of the agency managing the Greek debt.

Marc Roche