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i don't think anyone doubts that goldman sachs is influence peddling. it certainly became obvious when lehman brothers was allowed and AIG was bailed out.
it is interesting that the subject of bonuses was not addressed in the bailout bill because, if it was, these giant bonuses would be off the table. there are foxes in the henhouse and everybody knows it.....
what i find so interesting is that the media still chooses not to cover it, and the best investigative reporting is actually being done by magazine reporters.
Last edited by floridasandy; 11-02-2009 at 05:05 AM..
i don't think anyone doubts that goldman sachs is influence peddling. it certainly became obvious when lehman brothers was allowed and AIG was bailed out.
it is interesting that the subject of bonuses was not addressed in the bailout bill because, if it was, these giant bonuses would be off the table. there are foxes in the henhouse and everybody knows it.....
what i find so interesting is that the media still chooses not to cover it, and the best investigative reporting is actually being done by magazine reporters.
Actually, in one of the first drafts of the bailout bill, bonuses were addressed by giving Hank Paulson (Treasury Sec.) to decide bonuses through his offices if they felt the need. But that provision was quickly taken out.
i saw a brilliant piece by jeremy grantham. in part:
As we ponder the problem of prop trading, let us consider Goldman's stunning $3 billion second quarter profit. It appeared to be almost all hedge fund trading. Be aware also that this $3 billion is net of about $6 billion reserved for future bonuses. Goldman's CEO had, in fact, the interesting job of deciding how much of this $9 billion profit would be arbitrarily awarded to shareholders. [In this case, one-third. Could be worse!] This means that they extracted every penny of $9 billion from a fragile financial system. "Good for them," you may say, and they indeed are very smart. But surely they should not have been insured against failure by us taxpayers! Remember, they are now also a commercial bank yet very, very little of their $9 billion came from making loans. Three months later their bonus pool for the year is estimated to be a new record at $29 billion. And the whole banking industry is back to a new record for remuneration. How resilient! How remarkable! How basically undesirable for our economy!
In a perfect world that would have been the vaccine with extra mercury and live virus.
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