A term used by Goldman Sachs staff to refer to the bank's clients, or stupid people as the puppet characters created by Jim Henson in the 1950s. In an essay published by the New York Times, Greg Smith, who resigned as an executive director after spending 12 years at the company, accused Goldman Sachs of engaging in blind pursuit of profits at the expense of its clients' best interests. According to Smith, a number of senior executives openly called their clients "muppets". He also blamed the company's management for a steady decline in the firm's moral standards.

After the publication of the essay, Goldman Sachs' shares dropped 3.4 percent in New York trading the next day, which was the third-biggest decline in the 81-company Standard & Poor's 500 Financials Index.