Money - AOL Money & Finance

Whether it's the "irrational exuberance" of the last decade or the apocalyptic view that prevailed last winter, investor psychology tends to be shortsighted and veer toward extremes. But investors need to overcome myopia and getting lost in the moment, Michael Mauboussin, the chief investment strategist of mutual fund giant Legg Masson Asset Management argues. And in his new book Think Twice: Harnessing the Power of Counterintution (Harvard Business School Press), he attempts to outline how all decision-makers can be aware of and counter their own biases.

Investors need to test the worldview that spirals out of a situation -- what Mauboussin calls the "inside view" -- with a broader perspective that takes factors like history and statistics into account.

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Goldman Sachs CEO Blankfein says firm is doing 'God's work'

By Douglas McIntyre | Nov 9th 2009, 5:10AM EST Filed Under: Company News, Earnings, Goldman Sachs

Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO of Goldman Sachs (GS), has put an unusual spin on the bank's activities. He says his firm is doing "God's work." This may seem like an audacious statement coming from a man whose company has been harshly criticized for planning to give many of its employees multi-million pay packages just a bit more than a year after the collapse of the credit markets.

Blankfein told The Times of London, "We help companies to grow by helping them to raise capital. Companies that grow create wealth. This, in turn, allows people to have jobs that create more growth and more wealth. We have a social purpose." That is, of course, a social purpose that comes at a very steep price; it charges huge fees for raising money and handling M&A transactions, even if they eventually fail.

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