Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs, had to confront angry shareholders this week, laughs the Countess du Ruel.  And it sounds like the chairman, who claimed his bank was doing "God's work," was given hell by Christian shareholders at the annual meeting in Manhattan.  These religious leaders, with investments in Goldman Sachs, called upon him to work"for the many, not just the few." .

Blankfein also had to confront Evelyn Davis, a well known dowager who appears with regularity at annual board meetings to give her bit of hell to corporate chief executives.  As the meeting opened, this "nemesis of chief executives" turned her fury upon Blankfein, demanding that he step down from his golden pedestal by the end of the working day this Monday.

She described his "utter stupidity" and calling Goldman the world biggest personal piggy bank, she finished, "You are not as smart as you look."

Blankfein gave an unconvincing rebuttal that Goldman put clients first and valued the trust and confidence of customers and shareholders.  He said Goldman would create a "standards" committee, but as everyone knows self-regulation is like the Nazis policing the SS.

I was surprised how many Christian groups are shareholders in Goldman. I guess they must have plenty of funds to invest as Goldman has a high minimum investment.  Rev. Jesse Jackson spoke on behalf of community organizations which had holdings.  He suggested Goldman spread its wealth through the whole of society, especially community banks, which collapsed during the crisis, and unlike Goldman have not been able to recover.

Various priests and orders of nuns questioned the bank's transparency on derivatives, and called for the separation of the roles of chairman and chief executive.  They queried the wisdom of appointing the former president of Wal-Mart to the Goldman board, as Wal-Mart's record on spreading the wealth into communities isn't very good.

All this came after The Wall Street Journal claimed that bank executives are discussing whether Lloyd Blankfein should remain at the helm.  This was dismissed out of hand by senior Goldman sources, but we all know where there's smoke, there's fire.  The WSJ questioned whether Hank Paulson, former US Treasury Secretary and former chairman of Goldman, might return.

In any case at the annual meeting, Blankfein rejected all shareholder proposals.  As I said to my friend Elsa, who has shares in Goldman, "Well, he would, wouldn't he?"  I'm surprised the priests didn't perform an exorcism on him!