During his Wednesday testimony before the FCIC, Government Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein compared the financial crisis to a "hurricane," sort of an act of God, if you will, that nobody saw coming. For an "act of God" there were certainly a series of consequences that just happened to be very favorable and very profitable for Goldman. God must be on the GS payroll. How's this for fortuitous timing:
Here was another stroke of luck:
Sounds to me like more than luck. But it helps if you have lots of friends in high places:
Including when one of your own foxes is in charge of the henhouse:
"In 2006 and 2007, Goldman Sachs Group peddled more than $40 billion in securities backed by at least 200,000 risky home mortgages, but never told the buyers it was secretly betting that a sharp drop in U.S. housing prices would send the value of those securities plummeting.
Goldman's sales and its clandestine wagers, completed at the brink of the housing market meltdown, enabled the nation's premier investment bank to pass most of its potential losses to others before a flood of mortgage defaults staggered the U.S. and global economies.
Only later did investors discover that what Goldman had promoted as triple-A rated investments were closer to junk."
Here was another stroke of luck:
"The firm benefited when [Treasury Secretary and former Goldman CEO Hank] Paulson elected not to save rival Lehman Brothers from collapse, and when he organized a massive rescue of tottering global insurer American International Group while in constant telephone contact with Goldman chief Blankfein. With the Federal Reserve Board's blessing, AIG later used $12.9 billion in taxpayers' dollars to pay off every penny it owed Goldman.
These decisions preserved billions of dollars in value for Goldman's executives and shareholders. For example, Blankfein held 1.6 million shares in the company in September 2008, and he could have lost more than $150 million if his firm had gone bankrupt."
Sounds to me like more than luck. But it helps if you have lots of friends in high places:
"For decades, Goldman, a bastion of Ivy League graduates that was founded in 1869, has cultivated an elite reputation as home to the best and brightest and a tradition of urging its executives to take turns at public service.
As a result, Goldman has operated a virtual jobs conveyor belt to and from Washington: Paulson, as Treasury secretary, sent tens of billions of taxpayers' dollars to rescue Wall Street in 2008, and former Goldman employees populate some of the most demanding and powerful posts in Washington. Savvy federal regulators have migrated from their Washington jobs to Goldman."
Including when one of your own foxes is in charge of the henhouse:
"On Oct. 16 [2009], a Goldman vice president, Adam Storch, was named managing executive of the SEC's enforcement division."
144/98 here. I'm only on one though and am trying to keep it that way. I'm skipping many articles just because of it. I can echo the other comments here though, it's just pitiful.
I am with you my brotha'. I want blood and I want to see some hangin'. (Figuratively, of course. I am against capital punishment. Although I support corporal punishment in these instances. I think our country was WAY b etter off when we had floggings in the town square. Call me "ol' fashioned").
Friday, I was talking with my boss in general terms about preparing to be laid off.
When we got to the bankers and their roles in the meltdown, we quickly realized that 1) we were both amazingly angry, 2) that the anger was probably not good for our respective health, and 3) a banker in the room would probably have not been safe.
Our so-called reps in DC identify more with Wall Street and the financial community than they do with us.
I don't want the Rs in office again.
But if the Ds find it impossible to punish the financial wrong-doers and impossible to regulate the industry, then they deserve the backlash. It's on them.
The "hurricane" that Bankfein describes was intentional and predictable(and obviously profitable0. The "rescue" efforts by those in Washington and Wall Street was selective (ask Lehman Bros.)and proves the entire situation stinks like yesterday's diapers.
Des: First, thanks for all that you do. If there was such a thing as a "Paul Revere Award", I think you would deserve it.
But I know all this is gonna raise my blood pressure despite being on two medications. I left home at 123/78 and am already at 134/88 after this article.