Can I use your phone? essays correction Its shift from a white-shoe advisory and underwriting firm to a trading house is better told through the numbers. Between 1998 and 2008, Goldman more than doubled in size. Its roll of employees rose to 30,522 up from 15,361. Its principal investments grew to $13.96 billion, up from $1.4 billion, while the companyâs leverage ratio rose to 26.2-to-1, up from 24.7-to-1.