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Goldman Sachs: The Obama Administration's Haliburton?

I shouldn't have to explain the Haliburton reference, right?

You need to listen to Steve Cordasco lay out the Goldman Sachs mafia that has been set in place to determine which banks get TARP funds, who eats who, and who among the surviving banks gets the best deal. [The audio is from an entire show; fastforward to about 35 minutes in for the GS information.]

Once you realizer that Secretary Geitner and Fed Chair Bernancke have set things up so that GS alums [all with stock and stock options] are completely running the bank bailouts, then check this out:

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc. reported Tuesday a second-quarter profit that jumped more than 60% as the investment powerhouse earned nearly $750 million from equity underwriting, helping battered financial-services firms sell stock to meet new government capital requirements.

The quarterly performance from equity underwriting was a company record.

Goldman (GS 149.81, +0.37, +0.25%) also profited handsomely from its role as an intermediary, and sometimes a purchaser itself, for assets that troubled firms needed to sell quickly during the ongoing economic and market crises.

"Our role as an intermediary focused on making markets for buyers and sellers helped drive our performance. We were also active as an underwriter of many significant debt and equity offerings for clients," Chairman and Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein said in a press release.


See, the neat thing about this is that all those GS folks now working directly or even indirectly for the Treasury Department don't have to do the AIG hand-wringing about bonuses, because they all already have either the stock or the stock options to take their profits. Thus nobody in the Obama administration will be pillorying Goldman Sachs chief executives for outrageous salaries and bonuses.

But nothing like Haliburton, right...?
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Nancy Willing said…
Bad comparison? Do't have time to listen to what you've linked to but it is clear that GS clears any hurdle that tries to pin them down to person or party. They own everything and everyone.

It is certain that we have to keep the pressure on and keep exposing this shit.
July 15, 2009 at 8:27 AM
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