James Johnson is still on the Goldman board, and seems poised for reappointment, which pays a nice $520k/yr for a handful of meetings and more importantly, some phone calls.   He was at the helm of Fannie Mae when it was building its house of sand based on borrowing with a government guarantee, investing in mortgages, and growing at unsustainable rates that inevitably led to subprime, though they stated this exposure was $2B for a while, before noting it might be $250B (oops!).  More importantly they put the Government Seal of Approval on no-doc loans via their underwriting software, MyCommunity Mortgage.  Regulators could not say any loan approved via this software required extra capital, given Fannie and Freddie required basically zero capital, and they didn't. If there was a poster child for the bad behavior of the mortgage crisis, Johnson would be on anyone's list of candidates.

Some funds have a problem with Johnson, and think he should not be near the cockpit of a financial company.  But these outsiders don't understand the game like Goldman, who knows the essence of much of their alpha is not so much smart employees, but exceptional access, and Johnson is very well connected. Johnson was a bundler for the Obama campaign, raising between $200,000 and $500,000, and still can call important Washington people and get through. I'm a free marketer who is generally symathetic to private firms, which is why I can't stand the executives at our large financial institutions, most of whom have sold their souls for access to legislators granting little monopolies under the pretext of equality and safety. Call me a prig about principles, but I think it's pathetic. Our modern financial system at the top levels is uncompetitive and corrupt, and relies on favors granted by politicians.