Posted on 07/20/2009 12:21:49 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Money can't buy love? For proof, look no further than Goldman Sachs. Last week, the firm reported a spectacular quarterly profit -- close to $3.5 billion for the bank and about $385,000 in compensation for each employee for the first half of the year -- and right on cue, the braying began for the heads of the Goldmanites. Earlier this month, Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi, in a comprehensive exercise in conspiracy mongering, primed the pump of outrage with his article "The Great American Bubble Machine." Now a chorus of supporters has chimed in, shocked that in a recession the evil Goldman could turn such profit.
The rhetoric of outrage has come full circle: Before, the villains were the banks that were stupid and greedy enough to fail; now the villains are those -- a small club, basically just Goldman and J.P. Morgan Chase -- that have been smart and greedy enough to succeed.
What began as an effort to keep the financial industry from repeating its mistakes has turned into, as at other points in history, an attack on the idea of trading profit. It is no longer enough that the banks should be reformed; the opportunity to make this kind of profit should be eliminated.
This now-fashionable line of attack is badly misguided. Goldman and J.P. Morgan are reaping great rewards as the last firms standing in a game in which everyone else has been cowed or crushed. Yes, they're able to do that partly because the government has kept the financial system afloat. (Would anyone really prefer that it had not?) But the essence of the outcry is that we must punish Goldman for having been right. This is a mistake.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
******************************************EXCERPT******************************
Goldman-haters like to weave a narrative that connects the dots between Goldmanites and former Goldmanites who are supposed to rule the world in a one-degree-of-Goldman Sachs fashion.
What was that quote from the Rolling Stone article last week...??
“If the economy is circling the drain, Goldman Sachs will figure out a way to profit from being the pipe...”
Or words to that effect....
Considering that Goldman, Morgan Stanley and their alumni in government played a major role in creating the inferno on the first place, as far as I’m concerned, to some extent they are now getting insurance payments for fires they helped start.
rebuttal to this article here http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2296829/posts
We don’t want to “punish Goldman for having been right”, we want to punish them for manipulating the system for profit and stealing taxpayers money.
Smart??? Didn't Ayn Rand have a phrase "the aristocracy of pull"? Or to put it in terms of Chicago politics, the aristocracy of clout?
resist the urge to punish success??
since when has this been policy at the POST?
When it is a criminal enterprise that owns the TOTUS?
Well the Wash comPost can perfectly legally sell access to “non governmental” institutions like Goldman Sucks.
That was my thought....always suspicious of the Post...and the NY Times.
Goldman and J.P. Morgan executives have earned the same reward given to Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker.
The GOP needs to embrace Ron Paul and run against Goldman Sachs like the RATs ran against Halliburton. Join GS and the DNC at the hip and run against them as ONE enemy. We will sweep the 2010 elections.
The financial industry pays one fifth of all US taxes, alone.
“Resist The Urge To Punish Success”
RATS think NOT giving things to the poor is “punishing” them, yet they dont consider it punishment to take things away from people who earn it.
This article is such BS. Goldman Sachs, that branch of the DNC, made profit because they stole American taxpayer money. This is what we call crony capitalism.
Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi’s great article is a must read for every thinking American.
(about 10% of the population).
Come on wall street, isn’t the ephithet “liar” a little extreme?
‘specially if you consider that without the intervention of the government to protect them from catastrophic losses they had so cunningly insured against with worthless scraps of AIG paper Goldman would be bankrupt today?
They got $13 billion from the fed bailout of AIG, made possible by former GS Chairman Paulsen.
Face it, it's all intertwined and corrupt, and you are one of the few pom-pom wavers left on FR for this level of goverment/Wall Street/Fed corruption.
How much profit do you think GS should be limited to?
What they can earn without massive government intervention, and without setting up the bowling pins for another financial meltdown.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.