Friday, July 17, 2009

Matt Taibbi ON FIRE About the Goldman Profits

This one is so hot you're gonna need tongs to pick it up. It's right here. Excerpt:

We constructed this massive bailout infrastructure, and instead of pumping that free money back into the economy, the banks instead simply hoarded it and ate it on the spot, converting it into bonuses. So what does this Goldman profit number mean? This is the final evidence that the bailouts were a political decision to use the power of the state to redirect society’s resources upward, on a grand scale. It was a selective rescue of a small group of chortling jerks who must be laughing all the way to the Hamptons every weekend about how they fleeced all of us at the very moment the game should have been up for all of them.

Now, the counter to this charge is, well, hey, they made that money fair and square, legally, how can you blame them? They’re just really smart!

Bullshit. One of the most hilarious lies that has been spread about Goldman of late is that, since it repaid its TARP money, it’s now free and clear of any obligation to the government - as if that was the only handout Goldman got in the last year. Goldman last year made your average AFDC mom on food stamps look like an entrepreneur.


As they say in the Blog Biz, read the whole thing.

1 comment:

~ Marie ~ said...

A succinct summary from John Stewart's show... I just don't know what can be done. We elected President Obama...is change happening? Some days yes...some days it's very hard to tell.

John Stewart July 16, 2009

"I guess the bail outs are working for Goldman Sachs...that's where the government came in...

* First they let a couple of competitors like Bear Sterns and Lehman Brothers collapse or be absorbed. That can't be bad for Goldman's business.

* Than we gave AIG $13 billion dollars so they could pay back, 100 cents on the dollar, that they owe Goldman Sachs for the %$!%^ bets Goldman Sachs had made that AIG insured.

* Than we let Goldman Sachs become a holding bank and gave them $28 million dollars to their cost of capitol down.


It is what is known in business as the invisible government funded scaffolding of the free market..and it worked. just enough for Golden Sachs to pay it's employess a total of $11.36 billion so far this year"