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Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Goldman Sachs: Really Good or Really Corrupt?


Goldman Sachs announced record quarterly profits while their competitors struggle. Are They Really That Good?
Long the Wall Street firm everyone loves to hate, Goldman saw the brickbats rain down last week after it posted blowout second-quarter results and set aside a record amount for compensation. Even the arch-conservative Wall Street Journal editorial page joined the attacks.
I smell crony crapitolism*
Sure, they paid the money back, but how much did they benefit from government picking winners (Goldman, AIG) and Losers (Bear, Lehman Brothers), propping up the entire system, keeping it from collapsing upon their gold-plated ears? We will probably never know just how much they benefited from cosying up to Uncle Sam and having double agents inside our government.

I hear echos of Bernie Madoff
For starters, most folks aren’t quite sure how Goldman manages to make prodigious amounts of money. That leads to a feeling the firm must either be taking huge risks, or unduly benefiting from its extensive government connections.
Goldman hasn’t done a good job dispelling such notions and it sometimes makes matters worse. The firm has failed to adequately explain its trading relationship with American International Group Inc. and give a clear sense of whether and how it benefited from the massive bailout of the insurance giant.
Remember what everyone was saying after the Madoff house of cards collapsed? It was too good to be true, they should have known something was wrong... Goldman is way outperforming the market. Something is fishy.

Good thing they've bought Obama and the Democrats with lavish campaign contributions. Results like this would ordinarily bring government regulators knocking at their door.


* Yes, I know how to spell. Phony capitalism + The DC Capitol = Crapitolism

Bloomberg

6 comments:

Canadian Pragmatist said...

That's gov't for you. Still better than "a state of nature?"

Silverfiddle said...

Most of these effete bozos wouldn't last five minutes in nature.

I do not believe in the perfectibility of man, nor do I believe that it is in man's grasp to solve all problems.

But based upon history, I am confident we can do better than we are right now. We are going deeper in debt to China with less and less to show for it.

Canadian Pragmatist said...

I agree. Have you ever heard the saying "you've got to spend money to make money?"

NO ONE BELIEVES IN THE PERFECTIBILITY OF MAN!!!

Name me a single philosophy or religious belief or lack of it, etc... No one does.

It's a complete red-herring. Don't throw it out there again.

Silverfiddle said...

My blog, so I will throw it out there again:

Liberals in this country will not leave ordinary people alone until they have perfected us, in their eyes.

Canadian Pragmatist said...

That's just bs. Perfected has a meaning. You could say "better" and I could buy it, but when you use words like perfect, I know you're writng bs.

Keep throwing it out there. I'll keep telling you why it's bs.

I do think that a large portion of Christians are strong enough to become atheists and I will try my best to better tham and relieve them of their self-imposed chains, but not to perfect them.

Make them better. Big philosophical difference.

Silverfiddle said...

Keep preachin'! You're quite the evangelist. You remind me of those persistent bible-thumpers. Somebody could be talking sports and they
will work religion into it.

I can see you now in the Wal-Mart parking lot: "Excuse me, have you accepted Nietzsche as your personal savior?"

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