Goldman sucks, according to Greg Smith, a former banker in the investment firm's London office. In a New York Times Op-Ed on Wednesday, March 14, Smith wrote a scathing resignation letter detailing a company culture rife with scheming and scamming its clientele, practices he witnessed firsthand over his twelve-year career there. Goldman's practice of unloading "shitty deals" unto unwitting investors while simultaneously placing bets against them has of course been well-documented and comes as no surprise, but what does is that such public humiliation comes from within its own ranks.
Once universally revered but now widely reviled, Goldman Sachs is the investment bank everyone loves to hate. Tarred by scandal in the 2008 housing meltdown for selling garbage CDOs stuffed with sub-prime mortgages while at the same time making huge bets on the collapse in the housing market, the firm faced ethics hearings from the Senate Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Investigations in April of 2010. In a particularly memorable exchange, Michigan Senator Carl Levin grilled GS Mortgages Department head Daniel Sparks about internal memos referring to a prioritized investment for sale as "one shitty deal."
Goldman played both sides of the game to its own profit, which is legal, as CEO Lloyd Blankfein has pointed out, "in the context of market-making." To be clear, market-making is creating an arena for fair transactions to occur between buyers and sellers--not what Goldman was doing, which was "taking one side of a transaction that they were themselves creating and structuring so that it would cause the other side of the transaction to fail," according to Inside Job director Charles Ferguson. In the eyes of many, Goldman engineered a great global fraud. As a result of the greedy calculus of Goldman, and the entire banking industry, the housing market imploded, taking the economy and millions of American jobs with it. To add insult to injury, the banks subsidized their losses to the already reeling taxpayer, while privatizing all of the ill-gotten profits.
Since the meltdown, the banking industry has fought reform tooth and nail, in order to protect profitable unregulated revenue streams, i.e. derivatives. At the same time, banks are profiting wildly from charging ever-higher interest rates and fees to consumers, while the Federal Reserve has kept the federal funds interest rate--the rate banks pay for cash--near zero. That's a damn fine spread... Banks pay practically 0% on cash that they then turn and lend to consumers at a charge of up to 30%.
Banking profits are up and bonuses are bigger than ever, but are those bonuses deserved? Can you really say that you 'earned' tens of millions 'rightfully' when it was the result of a rigged game? This cavalier attitude of corporate entitlement for bankers and stockbrokers did not always exist, and it certainly does not bode well for the American Dream... Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, the stock market existed as a resource for businesses looking to raise capital, not as a global Ponzi scheme for manufacturing investment bubbles. Smith yearned for the halcyon days of an era at Goldman when clients mattered more than profits--when they weren't referred to as "muppets" by managing directors. Smith's manifesto marks a call to conscience not just for Goldman Sachs but for America.
3 Comments
Goldman destroyed America, yet Obama hired about dozen
Submitted by Jim Evanhoe on
Goldman - Sachs, the company, was Obama's largest contributor in the 2008 election. Goldman the company gave Obama $1,000,000.00, as Election Contributions show. That does not count what the Goldman executives and traders gave Obama in 2008 and now in 2012. Matt Taibbi writer for Rollingstone Magazine and Nomi Prins author and ex-executive from Goldman and myself have documented these facts. These are the facts: Goldman- Sachs deliberately destroyed the US Economy> March of 2000....to bring Bush to Power.....the deliberate deregulation by Alan Greenspan continued Goldman's ability to defraud investors from the U.S. to Europe. Bush's S.E.C. chief deliberately failed to safe guard Our financial system, so that Goldman and the rest could continue their fraud from 2000 through to 2008, and it continues today.
Not only was is it clearly known Goldman played a huge roll in destroying the U.S. and Western World's Economies 2000-2008, the individuals who did this are known. Yet Obama hired a dozen Goldman executives from the very beginning of his administration, infact his own Chief of Staff now the Mayor of Chicago was a high paid consultant to Goldman-Sachs. So are we the American People getting a "CON JOB" and nothing else from Obama ....You Bet.... Not only did Goldman get away with the largest securities theft in American and Global history, not one executive or trader from Goldman has ever gone to prison for their crimes. Obama and his Treasury Secretary continue their enrichment of "bailed out" Wall Street Banks such as Goldman, and so does the Federal Reserve under the current Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke. Obama and Bernanke latest Ponzi Scheme: the Fed lends at no interest billions and billions dollars to these same banks that got bailed out, where by they purchase in return with these funds "free money" U.S. Gov. Debt Paper, with a payoff by the U.S. Gov. in real interest "Our Money", this further enriches the guys who destroyed Our Economy, Our Neighborhoods, Our Jobs, Our Businesses, Our Children's future, higher education for Our Children, the ability for us to find valued work, or for our children to find work. 10's of Millions of Americans are out of work, things are not getting better! FACT: Goldman executives and Obama are becoming richer, taking huge vacations, sending their kids to top Schools, buying bigger homes, as WE become poorer. It is past the time of believing in anything Obama says. Goldman-Sachs top executives must be Criminally Charged, Convicted and Imprisoned for at least 20 yrs for destroying Our Financial System, it is absolute financial treason. Stop the Obama BS, it is time to vote out all Democrats for their failures, the biggest in US History, they absolutely failed to protect Our Financial System from criminals such as Goldman-Sachs.
OBAMA IS 100% A PHONY............dump all democrats!!!!!
We need an Independent Candidate for US President,
Obama and the Democrats have failed even when they controlled
the House the Senate and the Presidency...what do you think they'll
do next time around? FAIL! BUT everyone must know the FACTS:
Romney is Obama and Obama is Romney BOTH take their money from Goldman
and Wall Street, Wall Street Executives, Traders, and former Partners.
JAMES P. EVANHOE
China a success, USA failed government failed financial system
Submitted by Jim Evanhoe on
30 Years and counting, China has brought 700 million of it's citizens out of Poverty.
Today they are beginning the construction of 10 NEW CITIES , each with a population of at least one million, using current technologies for infrustructure and advanced green technologies, the cities of the future, today. As the USA has faced economic Recessions in 1988,89,90,91 & part of 1992, March of 2000,01, & part of 2002, October 2008,09,10,11 & 12, China has never faced a Recession in the last 30 years. Why is this? You hear from some Wall Street types ours is an economy that goes through cycles, when in reality what is really happening is Theft & Deliberate Destruction of Financial & Economic Systems by Goldman-Sachs. As stated by my first comment on this topic: Goldman Sucks, Matt Taibbi, Nomi Prins and myself researched and or lived by watching Goldman-Sachs destroy, lead by it's Board of Directors, March 2000 included the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, corporate executive & partners past and present Deliberately Destroyed the US Financial System. So the question is this: is Obama an Uncle Tom for Goldman-Sachs? These are the facts: Every Real Estate Boom starts to collapse during it's fourth year of Boom. This fact was researched completely. In 2006 California was already sinking, with hyper inflation in the real estate market in regards to high end homes. This was the exact same case in the Real Estate Collapse of Bush number 1, 88,89,90,91 & 92, now it was Bush number 2 and the same hyper inflation happening in California, both times Stockton, California lead the way in homeowners becoming Upside Down with regards to their Home Mortgages, Stockton is my home town. Yet Goldman kept bundling mortgages and offing them around the world as AAA Securities that is Fraud. That deliberate Fraud lead the Western World to Collapse.
Yet Obama hired the following Goldman Executives...........
Obama’s once Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel – contract employee to Goldman-Sachs.
Obama’s Under Secretary of State, Robert Hormats, Goldman-Sachs International, Vice Chairman.
Obama’s COO of the SEC Enforcement, Adam Storch, Goldman-Sachs Vice President of Business Intelligence.
Obama’s Chief of Staff for the Treasury, Mark Patterson, Goldman-Sachs Lobbyist.
Obama’s Department Director of the NEC, Diana Farrell, Goldman-Sachs Financial Analyst.
Obama’s Chairman of the FIAB, Stephen Friedman, Co-COO, Chairman of Goldman-Sachs.
Obama’s Ambassador to Germany, Phillip Murphy, a Director at Goldman-Sachs.
Obama’s Chairman of the CFTC, Gary Gensler, Co-Head of Finance at Goldman-Sachs.
Obama’s White House Counsel, Sonal Shah, Vice President Environmental Policy at Goldman-Sachs.
Obama’s White House Staff, Alexander Lasry, Government Affairs Analyst for Goldman-Sachs
Now if you owned a business and had an accounting firm do your books only to find out they destroyed your business would you have hired the accounting firms employees? The answer would be absolutely not.
Yet Obama the Uncle Tom of Goldman-Sachs did just that. You might have lost your home, your job, your childrens college education fund, but Goldman-Sachs received cake positions from their Uncle Tom, Obama.
Uncle Tom - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_TomThe phrase "Uncle Tom" has also become an epithet for a person who is slavish and excessively subservient to perceived authority figures, particularly a black ...
Obama spoke to Us about Change, Yet there was none, Wall Street Criminals still drive their million dollar cars, send their kids to high end prep schools and colleges, while we the 99% live in a greater degree of poverty. Not just less wages, less balanced meals, homes that need repairs, children going without, grandparents wiped out financially by the deliberate destruction of Our Financial Institutions and Economy.
James P. Evanhoe
JAMES P. EVANHOE
Goldman - Sachs "sucks" in degrees it all equals Treason
Submitted by Jim Evanhoe on
IS IT TREASON? You tell me!
In China if one of the leading Financial Institutions were caught deliberately collapsing the entire Chinese Economy, that firm's officials would be shot or hung. With good reason, to have destroyed the efforts of creating a better life for its citizens, all 1.3 billion of them, China with its own set of corruption issues, but on a far smaller scale, would still have never allowed Goldman-Sachs to get away with destroying the entire Financial System. The Chinese did make a comment that Goldman-Sachs was trying but failed. Today in the USA we need leaders both in government and in the financial system that will clearly complete thorough Checks & Balances over all Our systems.
How it "The American - USA - Economy" was "Setup to Fail".............
1st
It took the Bush's Family's main man in Congress Phil Gramm of Texas to introduce the Bill "Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act" that would deliberately destroy the "Glass-Steagall Act", the act that protected our financial system & our economy. This happened in 1999.
They had Clinton over a barrel in 1998-99...threatening him with further criminal charges in regards to the lies about the "Blue Dress"and his other whore............Clinton Caved! Watch the tape of him signing the "Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act" Gramm acts as if he just stabbed Ceasar and got away with it!
2nd
Then in March of 2000 Goldman-Sachs with Board members from Intel, Bill Gates' The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, GE and Oil set about "unloading from the Top." Meaning the top executives at Goldman were getting out of Tech, yet every piece of Investment Recommendation out of Goldman to it's mid to small cap investors said to "BUY."
Why would Goldman destroy the Tech Boom, a $17 Trillion dollar segment of the Global economy. An industry with America's brightest minds, the greatest advancements to the Global Society since the Industrial Revolution over 100 yrs. earlier. WHY? Why destroy millions of the best paying jobs ever created by innovation? Why destroy 100's of billions of dollars in retirement funds, stock value, jobs for Tech Empolyees? Why derail America's future?
3rd
So that The Political Playing Field between Gore & Bush would be economically leveled. Thus giving the Bush Family an even chance ...and several corrupt actions in Florida to bring George Jr. to power. With George Jr. in they: Goldman, Bill Gates, GE & Oil would get what they wanted... even at the Cost of destroying millions of jobs and destroying trillions of dollars of investments in the Tech Market, the future of America, the World. I come from a huge Political Family in California both Republican and Democrat...I have watched my entire life just how groups level the Political Playing Field. Now with Bush in Bill Gates who had contributed with his executives 3 times more money to the Republicans' effort, would have Bush Jr. stop the break up of Microsoft>>remember<<... Intel and Mircosoft would destroy start up competitors and in some cases even buy their technology for next to nothing. GE & Big Oil would get another Bush War, that would raise oil prices as they had during the first Bush War by 4 times, and GE would get contracts for increased Defense Spending. (Bush Wars and financial terrorism has actually destroyed long term value see below.)
Goldman was to receive "The Privatization of Social Security", Goldman was as the " Wall Street Journal" stated and I quote "stood to gain the most from Bush's Privatization of Social Security." But Goldman never got it.
4th
Now with Bush in the Financial Institutions that committed Investor Fraud by not telling their Mid to Small Cap Investors they were getting out at the Top which included after Goldman started it: Merrill Lynch, and even Charles Schwab. They were never going to be put on trail, never prosecuted, Goldman was even Eliot Spizer's biggest financial backer as stated by the "Wall Street Journal".............
Thanks to George Jr. they were never going to be convicted!
5th
Our Financial System was now going to be raped "plain and simple" for the next 8 yrs.
Was it obvious, absolutely if you Knew: Real Estate, I did through my Father's company, If you Knew: Politics, I did through my Family's long history in politics, and if you Knew: someone in high places say the Headquarters of Merrill Lynch in March of 2000, I did.
Marcus and I watched from Merrill Headquartes, we watched Goldman-Sachs, then Merrill Lynch get out from the Top.
We let Eliot Spitzer's office (he was the Attorney General of NY at the time) know the details (twice) and nothing came of it. Spitzer only convicted two low level traders and that was it. He is as dirty as Bush & Goldman.
6th
Now the Bush Family and Goldman needed one more person and that person was Alan Greenspan...........the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, a man who de-regulated the entire Financial Industry..............now the gates of fraud and corruption of the People's Money was all theres as well. Greenspan would be wined and dined at Enron Headquarters in Texas and they would even give him an award, and he was wined and dined in Jackson Hole Wyoming by the Jackson Hole Gang....which included Dick Cheney, Dan Cook the III, Max C. Chapman Jr. and Walter Scott Jr. Again I lived there and saw first hand the parties and Greenspan becoming the Uncle Tom for Goldman, the Bush Family and deliberate destruction and Chaos for the 99%.
7th
With un-regulated financial markets-no checks and balances what so ever, further debt spending by Bush Jr., Greenspan and the SEC not doing their Jobs as prescribed by legislation, Goldman, Lehman Bros, AIG, and the ratings companies had a field day ripping off the World. Again >>remember<< every Real Estate Boom starts to collapse in its 4th year, that would have been 2006. All Wall Street Investment Firms work off of industry charts going back decades, 20, 50 yrs. They absolutely knew The Real Estate Boom was crashing and that is WHY the top executives at Goldman and their Former Partners like Dan Cook the III sold their holding either in the markets relating to real estate or Goldman's own Stock...it is all on record.
8th
They needed a President that would continue the Corruption of Our Financial system, protect them from prosecution, as CBS 60 minutes stated to the Head of the FBI in Los Angeles on National Television, they needed another Uncle Tom, a President owned by individuals oweing Bush, or Goldman Sachs itself. They got just that in Obama.
8th
As we sit here March 26th, 2012 and see Romney owned by Wall Street PACS and the Mormon so called Church, Obama owned by Wall Street executives and the Pritzker Family, they are currently Our only choices for President of the United States of America...& "We the People"... Are we OCCUPY going to let this happen again and again until there is nothing left but poverty for the 99%. As China lives for decade after decade with correct financial and economic management, checks and balances that protect the entire society, not just the ruling class, the entire society all 1.3 billion citizens......... "We the People of the USA" are getting raped by the Bush Family and their cronies: Goldman-Sachs and the failed Presidency of Obama.
Finally:
Who leads the World economically and financially? It is no longer the USA, the USA has to borrow 40 cent of every dollar the government spends. Our government is in current debt of over $17 Trillion, and overall long term debt of $58 Trillion and growing.
The Bush Family and Goldman since their journey of Social and Financial Chaos started has destroyed globally since the mid 1980's over $300 trillion in assests, retirement funds, stock value, economic out put nationally and globally, millions of businesses put under, millions of homes lost globally, individuals credit ratings destroyed and they may never recover, the future of higher education for our children basically stripped from most,........These are the Facts........
GE & Big Oil may profit short term from Bush Created Wars & Financial Chaos but over the long term they have lost 100's of billions....JUST DO THE MATH!
So does Goldman Suck.......... big time, big time treason in my view!
James P. Evanhoe
JAMES P. EVANHOE
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