Yesterday’s post at Puma P.A.C featured Goldman Sachs, the Cap and Trade bill passed by the House, and the devastating article about Goldman Sachs by Matt Taibbi, and the reaction by Riverdaughter at The Confluence about the small evil group to which no one we know belongs.
There’s no way to summarize Taibbi’s indictment of Goldman Sachs’ participation in the financial black holes starting with the stock market crash of 1929; you really should read his piece. However, Taibbi summarizes the Cap and Trade bill as yet another investment “opportunity” for Goldman Sachs this way:
Well, you might say, who cares? If cap-and-trade succeeds, won’t we all be saved from the catastrophe of global warming? Maybe – but cap-and-trade, as envisioned by Goldman, is really just a carbon tax structured so that private interests collect the revenues. Instead of simply imposing a fixed government levy on carbon pollution and forcing unclean energy producers to pay for the mess they make, cap-and trade will allow a small tribe of greedy-as-hell Wall Street swine to turn yet another commodities market into a private tax-collection scheme. This is worse than the bailout: It allows the bank to seize taxpayer money before it’s even collected.
Here are some snippets from the opening criticism in Wikipedia about the people of Goldman Sachs (emphasis mine):
- David Brown was convicted of passing inside information to Ivan Boesky
- Robert Freeman … protégé of Robert Rubin, was also convicted of insider trading
- … an apparent revolving-door relationship in which its employees and consultants have moved in and out of powerful US Government positions:
- Former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson was a former CEO of Goldman Sachs.
- The current chief economic adviser to President Obama, Lawrence Summers, was noted for receiving $5.2 million from hedge fund D.E. Shaw in 2008 and speaking fees (ranging from $45 thousand to $135 thousand per event) from banks including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch at a time when he was expected to become the most influential financial official in the U.S. Government
- Former bank regulator William K. Black, appearing on Bill Moyers Journal on April 3, 2009, accused the financial industry of massive fraud, citing the role Tim Geithner played before being promoted to Treasury Secretary as well as the successful efforts of Alan Greenspan, former Goldman CEO Robert Rubin (Geithner’s mentor) and Larry Summers in the late 1990s to block regulation of the financial derivatives market.
- … Summers, Rubin and Greenspan blocked efforts to regulate the derivatives market
- the selection of former Goldman Sachs lobbyist Mark Patterson as chief of staff to Treasury Secretary Geithner, despite President Barack Obama’s pledge to limit the influence of lobbyists in his administration.
someone make it STOP!
Here are some other people of Goldman Sachs – who touched people you might recognize, who in turn touch you. In a bad way.
Lloyd C. Blankfein – GS chairman & CEO – fundraiser for Hillary Clinton presidential campaign
Kathleen Brown – GS adviser – California political family
Ashton B. Carter – GS consultant – defense acquisitions czar for Barack Obama administration
E. Gerald Corrigan – GS managing director – unofficial advisor to Tim Geithner
Stephen Friedman – GS director – assistant to George W. Bush administration on economic policy
Dick Gephardt – GS advisor and president of GS lobby group – former congressman and presidential candidate
Bruce A. Heyman – GS partner – fundraiser for Barack Obama presidential campaign
James A. Johnson – GS director – campaign manager for Walter Mondale, head of Barack Obama’s VP search team, head of John Kerry’s VP search team,
Neel T. Kashkari – GS vice president – Dept of Treasury assistant secretary for international affairs
Michael Paese – GS director of government affairs – aide to Barney Frank, deputy diretor of House Financial Services Committee
John F.W. Rogers – GS partner – chief of staff to Jon Corzine, US Dept of Treasury assistant secretary, US Dept of State undersecretary
James J. Schiro – GS director – fundraiser for John McCain presidential campaign
Faryar Shirzad – GS managing director, government affairs – Republican council for Senate Committee on Finance, deputy national security advisor for international economics for George W. Bush administration
Todd A. Williams – GS managing director – fundraiser for Barack Obama presidential campaign
Kendrick R. Wilson III – GS managing partner – adviser to Henry Paulson, informal adviser to Laurence Fink (informal adviser to Rahm Emanuel)
It is clear from the above that Goldman Sachs believes in our two party system, even if we no longer do.
the two party system is alive and unwell
