GIVE IT BACK GOLDMAN!
Wall Street Welfare Queen Average
Bonuses $1.0 Million Per Employee
Hacking its way through the financial jungle, Goldman always
comes out on top. Cheers! Image
The Money Party at Work
There are a number of stories out there about Goldman Sachs gaining unfair advantage in the financial markets. One concerns a former employee who allegedly swiped a special program to maximize automated stock trades. Questions were raised about the propriety of this since Goldman is hauling in tons of cash on a daily basis while others struggle. A variation of this story involves speculation that Goldman gets insider information through some internet scheme and uses that to maximize their haul.
But the biggest outrage is what's happened in public.
We Made Goldman Sachs what it is Today
If it weren't for our tax dollars and the cash flow that citizens provide for the United States Treasury, Goldman Sachs would have joined Bear Sterns and Lehman Brothers in the graveyard of financial high flyers.
But they were saved. Bush Secretary of the Treasury Robert Paulson came to the rescue when he assured that one of Goldman Sachs most important customers, the AIG group, survived a financial mess of its own creation.
Our original contribution was in the $20 billion range but then our elected representatives helped Goldman even more when they jacked up the subsidy to $85 billion. That's enough money to hire a workforce of one million people at a salary of $60,000 a year, plus benefits.
Had AIG tanked, Goldman would have been in very serious trouble. In September 2008, Paulson, a former CEO of Goldman met with Tim Geithner, soon to be President Obama's Secretary of the Treasury, when Geithner headed up the New York Federal Reserve Bank. Goldman's CEO was "the only Wall Street chief executive" at the critical meeting.
This back room meeting was exposed by Gretchen Morgenson in an outstanding New York Times article: "Although it was not widely known, Goldman, a Wall Street stalwart that had seemed immune to its rivals’ woes, was A.I.G.’s largest trading partner … A collapse of the insurer threatened to leave a hole of as much as $20 billion in Goldman’s side, several of these people said." Sept. 27, 2008
While Lehman Brothers got nothing, AIG got some serious cash and survived, thus assuring Goldman's survival. Secretary Paulson and Fed Chairman Geithner came through with the guarantees. When Paulson left with Bush, Geithner showed up to take Paulson's place at Treasury. The beat goes on.
It's The Money Party at work. They have no permanent friends or permanent enemies, just permanent interests. Goldman's interest was turning a sow's ear, the financial collapse that they helped create, into a silk purse. Mission accomplished.
Goldman's chief financial officer attributed the $39 million a day income to the firm's reputation for "very, very strong culture of risk management." Is he kidding? Their success is based on that $85 billion of our money that saved their asses. Goldman's average $1.0 million per employee bonuses wouldn't exist were it not for citizens paying for their survival.
Have you received your thank you card from Goldman Sachs yet?
Don't hold your breath. But you can be sure that when they've screwed up what people are trying to pass off as a recovery, they'll be back at our Treasury Department again for the next big bailout courtesy of you know who.
We have no government left. It's simply a welfare agency for the most favored failed financial giants; a paper money producer to wrap the ugly truth in fictional dollars; a subprime governance scheme developing Potemkin Villages everywhere.
It's socialism for the ultra rich and survival of the fittest for the rest of us.
Millions get sick, suffer and die without medical coverage. But Goldman bags $39 million a day in the Wall Street casino. Millions of hardworking citizens lose their jobs and can't find work. But Goldman gives out bonuses averaging $1.0 million per employee. Their survival is based entirely on our assistance but when citizens need some help, there's no room at the inn.
And count on it, nobody in power will do a single thing about it. Not one thing.
Fairness, equity, civility, good taste, discretion, opportunity, even the least degree of common decency -- all dead -- thanks to The Money Party.
END
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Comments
there are
multiple posts on EP about this. We didn't focus in on the bonuses, more the actual profits. There are many focused on the paying out CDS bets via AIG @ 100%. I wrote about it at the time, which was obfuscated by AIG executive bonus outrage.
Bonuses are not the main financial issue but
They are a profound reflection of the good judgment of Goldman's management and they move public opinion in a way that makes people more receptive to the details of the market built for just a few.
I know enough about large, highly profitable corporations to say this. They don't advertise it, they avoid publicity, and they're very sensitive to timing so as not to offend their public. This garish display of bonuses at a time when the people who provided the foundation for the bonuses face ruin indicates that there is some serious judgment missing at GS. It's a matter of timing, as well. Now is really not the time to do this.
The pay off for the CDS bets that you wrote about is maybe the most outrageous piece of this story. The political insider leverage to achieve all of this for GS is also right up there.
Fascinating times, that's for sure.
Michael Collins
Financial-Intelligence Complex
While I realize this site steers clear of any whiff of conspiracy normally, it is interesting to note, in light of Matt Taibbi's outstanding Rolling Stone article on Goldman Sachs, and a number of other columns/posts, that members - past and present - of Goldman Sachs have had exposure to the intelligence establishment - quite normal for Wall Streeters, of course, as they were the founders and creators of the American intelligence establishment.
One example: Stephen Friedman (former senior chairman and parter at Goldman Sachs), who left the NY Federal Reserve Bank rather suddenly (shouldn't he at least be required to give two weeks' notice in that type of position?).
Mr. Friedman was once was a member of the Aspin-Brown Commission on the US Intelligence Community, as well as a member of an external review panel of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). One wonders how many others at Goldman have ties to the intelligence community?
Just asking.....
Very good points
Whether or not Taibbi's example is correct, it has the appearance of potential impropriety and leverage. Taibbi is to be highly commended for his thorough and gutsy piece in Rolling Stone.
If there were to be some 'listening' to information that should be private, it could be done here and here. WHen you see ATT as a network provider, the name Russell Tice comes up and bingo. This was in DKOS a few days ago.
Goldman is so dominant, they can probably make any market they want so why bother with the intrigue. But when your as dominant as they are and as arrogant, it gives rise to questions that would not otherwise be asked.
With is move on bonuses at this this time they've sowed the wind. That's not a good move when you have as much to lose as they do.
Michael Collins
Not so much intrigue, but special access
"Goldman is so dominant, they can probably make any market they want so why bother with the intrigue."
It's not so much intrigue, but how they've been gaming everything. I mentioned Friedman and the intel links, especially that NRO stuff, because when Reagan brought in Casey as his CIA director, one of the very first actions Casey took was to classify satellite resource data - which had been available to all - then make it available exclusively to his buddies on Wall Street (can you say Goldman Sachs & Morgan Stanley).
This ready access to crucial data (gold & silver mining, plus) along with their speculation on the InterContinental Exchange (which they financed, by the way, along with several well-known oil companies) in oil, energy futures - and who knows what else - demonstrates a broad spread of gaming and rigging, something Taibbi doesn't even mention.
Thanks for your response, though, very thoughtful.
There's basically a war going on between Goldman and the CME
And it all has to do with that carbon trading that is being promoted. The ICE has setup I believe it was 7 special market markers, the largest being Goldman. Now I'm not saying the Chicago Mercantile Exchange are angels, but so far, they've become a large threat to Goldman's scheme to control carbon trading. I'm not saying support the CME's NYMEX-based Green Exchange. Carbon is where it will all be at, it will be bigger than crude oil or financial futures, if this gets through. Just imagine, if you're a manufacturer in this country, big or small in Ohio or California, in order to operate you will have to buy these credits. The question begs, who will be the largest supplier of these things, Goldman and the remaining members of the Carbon Seven Sisters, or the CME and their exchange? This is going to get ugly folks, no good guys, just your idea of who is the least evil.
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www.venomopolis.com
And yes I'm aware
That Goldman is also a partner in the Green Exchange. Just another example of them hedging their bets.
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www.venomopolis.com
A quick correction
In the place of ICE, insert ICE and OTC operations. Thank you.
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www.venomopolis.com
And don't forget....
I'd say ICE US Trust, Markit Group, Climate Exchange Plc (Chicago Climate Exchange, Euro Climate Exchange, etc.), DTCC, MarkitSERV, and the list goes on and on....