The People vs. Goldman Sachs

The People vs. Goldman Sachs

www.rollingstone.com

They weren't murderers or anything; they had merely stolen more money than most people can rationally conceive of, from their own customers, in a few blinks of an eye. But then they went one step further. They came to Washington, took an oath before Congress, and lied about it.

(visit the link for the full news article)

There's a new Matt Taibbi article at the Rolling Stone. You'd think that the best financial reporter around today would be employed by someone like the Wall Street Jounal, Forbes, Bloomberg, or maybe somewhere like the NYT or CNN, but nope the Rolling Stone has him.

The article has nothing new for those of us who have followed the whole financial meltdown and how certain institutions are above any accountabillity, but Taibbi explains things in a way that anyone can understand and get pissed off about.

The only new info in the article is the evidence gathered not by a Justice Department investigator but by a Senator's office. If Eric Holder does not assign someone to prosecute he should be fired by the President or removed by Congress. Three years after the crisis an not one prosecution of anyone important and connected to the biggest of the the banks.

The Justice Department has what I consider a slam dunk case on perjury before Congress dropped in it's lap by Senator Levin, and could probably prosecute a couple of other charges and win.

If this goes without prosecution, there is no argument that anyone can make that we live in a nation of equal protection under the law as it will be certain that there are institutions and people that are above the law, and that laws are only for us little people.

If so we should be formulating in our minds what we as a people should do.

"deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

www.rollingstone.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

The Levin investigation is an important step closer to justice.

Now, let us see whether an administration stock full of ex-Goldman Sachers will actually prosecute... I'm not sure I would put any money on that happening. (Unless the government wanted to bail me out if I lost?)

The Greeks are also looking into "questionable" practices of both Golman-Sachs and Deutsche Bank, along with the rating's agencies (another major player complicit in this whole scheme), hopefully the ball has been sent rolling, and a major overhaul of the banking industry is on its way.

Here is a gem from the article... I had to post it to emphasize Taibbi's colorful writing style, which may be a reason he is at Rolling Stone rather than the other, somewhat bland, publication the OP was mentioning.

Defenders of Goldman have been quick to insist that while the bank may have had a few ethical slips here and there, its only real offense was being too good at making money. We now know, unequivocally, that this is bull#. Goldman isn't a pudgy housewife who broke her diet with a few Nilla Wafers between meals — it's an advanced-stage, 1,100-pound medical emergency who hasn't left his apartment in six years, and is found by paramedics buried up to his eyes in cupcake wrappers and pizza boxes. If the evidence in the Levin report is ignored, then Goldman will have achieved a kind of corrupt-enterprise nirvana. Caught, but still free: above the law.

the Billmeister

p.s.
Why don't we ever hear about Iceland on mainstream news... oh yeah, they decided to NOT bailout the fraudulent bankers, prosecuted them, and are on the upward swing of economic recovery.

reply to post by Billmeister


We don't hear about Iceland because we must believe that if those that were corrupt were held accountable the world as we know it would end. Though Iceland is so small it may not be a good example it is evidence that default and prosecutions don't necessarily mean TEOTWAKI.

Here is a related interview... thought it was relevant:


It repeats how Lloyd Blankfein was caught red-handed committing perjury in front of congress, among all their other dubious doings.

As Taibbi states, if congress is going to pursue Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds (Major League Baseball players who lied about steroid use, for all our European friends)... why aren't these guys being prosecuted? After all, the end result was far more significant.

the Billmeister

reply to post by jefwane


Goldman has been around for a very long time. They have their tentacles in many many places. Lets all hope something good, and something big comes from this.

But beginning in the mid-Nineties, when former Goldman co-chairman Bob Rubin served as Bill Clinton's senior economic-policy adviser, the government began moving toward a regulatory system that relied almost exclusively on voluntary compliance by the banks. Old-school criminal referrals disappeared down the chute of history along with floppy disks and scripted television entertainment. In 1995, according to an independent study, banking regulators filed 1,837 referrals. During the height of the financial crisis, between 2007 and 2010, they averaged just 72 a year.

But spiking almost all criminal referrals wasn't enough for Wall Street. In 2004, in an extraordinary sequence of regulatory rollbacks that helped pave the way for the financial crisis, the top five investment banks — Goldman, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns — persuaded the government to create a new, voluntary approach to regulation called Consolidated Supervised Entities. CSE was the soft touch to end all soft touches. Here is how the SEC's inspector general described the program's regulatory army: "The Office of CSE Inspections has only two staff in Washington and five staff in the New York regional office."

Among the bankers who helped convince the SEC to go for this ludicrous program was Hank Paulson, Goldman's CEO at the time. And in exchange for "submitting" to this new, voluntary regime of law enforcement, Goldman and other banks won the right to lend in virtually unlimited amounts, regardless of their cash reserves — a move that fueled the catastrophe of 2008, when banks like Bear and Merrill were lending out 35 dollars for every one in their vaults.

Declining regulatory oversight, a 35:1 fractional lending ratio, and the gutting of the staff of investigators and analysts.... Oh Hank.... how could you? Are you an American... or do you belong to the "nation of bankers"?

Don't answer that... take the 5th.... we already know anyway.

I remember reading some of his articles on New York Press (or was it Village voice) which at the time was one of the few "alternative" print newspapers. Was a fan of his, he would be one of the reasons that I would pick up the paper. Too bad both papers are corporate owned now and their articles are beyond watered down. Has no clue that he's in rollin stone.

Goldman Sachs is one of the main reasons that there will be almost no regulation of the cashino heaven Wall Street. Revolving door is an understatement.

Sweep...sweep...nothing to see here folks please move along.

This is apparently one of those stories that simply leaves the ATS community mute in awe.

To me, this one is particularly troublesome because of my 'conspiracy theory' affliction which makes me sensitive to the idea of "Economic Royalty" and what such a concept implies.

Dare I ask? Could we be ruled by some twisted form of aristocracy now?

It's an ugly thought, one that may seem outrageous to some.....

the president is above the law, the most that anything that can be done to a president is impeachment by congress.

and all that means is he is booted out office. but since their is an unwritten code to prevent each party from starting an all out impeachment war that would benefit nobody, each party has a blank pass for most offenses as long as the public is kept in the dark.

Originally posted by randomname
... as long as the public is kept in the dark.

Or confused beyond hope.

There are 2 stories and corresponding threads running at the moment that really should have people reaching for thier torches and pitchforks, this one "The People vs. Goldman Ransacks" and Iraq dossier drawn up to make case for war – intelligence officer

Both stories present the evidence for the people to see, and I ask myself how can the people sitting at home be prepared to continue down this path. I could continue this small rant, but as Maxmars said I am almost "mute in awe".

My apologies if I'm just rambeling.

reply to post by ukWolf


I completely understand.

It's hard to accept that our government can suffer this kind of conflagration of private interests, and stubbornly remain systemically and ideologically resistant to effective self-regulation. Even to the point of denying redress, citizens having "no standing" as the gatekeepers say.

Awesome!
SnF.

Sad, though, that the only entity out there with the balls to actually report this is Rolling Stone.

Congress
Senate
Mr.President
Every other mainstream media in the pockets of these crooks

Rolling Stone

I'll be buying a Rolling Stone mag for the first time in, like, 20 years.

Originally posted by Maxmars

Originally posted by randomname
... as long as the public is kept in the dark.

Or confused beyond hope.

Unfortunately, I think that is more than likely going to happen.

reply to post by jefwane


Matt Taibbi is one of my favorites, I think most of his work should be required reading for everyone.

The Great American Bubble Machine

Why Isn't Wall Street In Jail?

The Truth About the Tea Party

In the Tea Party narrative, victory at the polls means a new American revolution, one that will "take our country back" from everyone they disapprove of. But what they don't realize is, there's a catch: This is America, and we have an entrenched oligarchical system in place that insulates us all from any meaningful political change. The Tea Party today is being pitched in the media as this great threat to the GOP; in reality, the Tea Party is the GOP. What few elements of the movement aren't yet under the control of the Republican Party soon will be, and even if a few genuine Tea Party candidates sneak through, it's only a matter of time before the uprising as a whole gets castrated, just like every grass-roots movement does in this country. Its leaders will be bought off and sucked into the two-party bureaucracy, where its platform will be whittled down until the only things left are those that the GOP's campaign contributors want anyway: top-bracket tax breaks, free trade and financial deregulation. The rest of it — the sweeping cuts to federal spending, the clampdown on bailouts, the rollback of Roe v. Wade — will die on the vine as one Tea Party leader after another gets seduced by the Republican Party and retrained for the revolutionary cause of voting down taxes for Goldman Sachs executives. It's all on display here in Kentucky, the unofficial capital of the Tea Party movement, where, ha, ha, the joke turns out to be on them: Rand Paul, their hero, is a fake.

Bold added

The Real Housewives of Wall Street

And his latest book - Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America

Originally posted by jefwane

There's a new Matt Taibbi article at the Rolling Stone. You'd think that the best financial reporter around today would be employed by someone like the Wall Street Jounal, Forbes, Bloomberg, or maybe somewhere like the NYT or CNN, but nope the Rolling Stone has him.

We should be thanking the powers that be that none of them were able to lock their claws in him, if they had he would have surely been censored or "discouraged" from digging in as deep as he does, he's about the only reason some of their shenanigans even catch a glimpse in the MSM.

These thieves have stolen our pensions and our childrens college fund while giving themselves bonuses. We should have spent it all and had fun instead of scrimping to get by to throw the money to these crooks. We are being shown who is boss and until we can get someone in law enforcement to act, we are hosed. We need the FBI to act upon the facts. They have to be able to see the situation for what it is. To me, their silence is defeaning. Is there not any checks and balances built in anymore?

reply to post by jefwane


Soros - controls the banks and contributes BIG time to at least 30 Media Outlets.

Take a look:
www.abovetopsecret.com...