April 28, 2010--Goldman Thoughts
Watching the Senate hearings on Goldman Sachs, I have two thoughts:
First, with Republican members such as Tom Coburn (who coldheartedly last month single-handedly cut off unemployment benefits for hundreds of thousands of Americans) so seemingly bent out of shape about the shenanigans that were standard procedure on Wall Street, what really was going on downtown must have been worse than previously thought.
For GOP politicians who believe that nirvana is to cut taxes for the wealthy and deregulate all forms of business so that the so-called free market can work its magic, to be so publicly upset with the boys from Goldman suggests that either they have read the polls that indicate about 65 percent of Americans want to see Wall Street more strenuously regulated or even they cannot avoid the truth of what happened.
To see Republicans so casually comparing Wall Street, as represented by Goldman, to be no better than a gambling casino--in fact Coburn went further than one of his Democrat colleagues to say that at least Las Vegas casinos aren't rigged: betters know the odds before playing while on Wall Street the odds kept changing and the investment-bettors never were informed--suggests to me that was too much fraud for even the GOP to deny.
Let's hope, therefore, that after grilling the Goldman employees they go back to the floor of the Senate and vote for strong reregulation and stop their absurd spinning and filibustering.
Second thought:
It both angers me and breaks my heart to see these young, bright market-makers, as they describe themselves, wasting their time at Goldman where all there was and is to do is to make money essentially via fraud or dissembling by packaging and then pawning off on their clients financial products that have no utility whatsoever and do not in any measurable way contribute to our economy or our national well being.
How sad that none of them thought for a second to do something worthwhile: start a business that would actually do something and create jobs, go to medical school, engage in research, become an architect, or think about teaching.
For them, there is still time. God knows they have the resources they need to make a career change.
Footnote: While the hearings proceeded, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by about 215 points, or 2 percent, while the value of a share of Goldman stock rose by nearly 1 percent.
First, with Republican members such as Tom Coburn (who coldheartedly last month single-handedly cut off unemployment benefits for hundreds of thousands of Americans) so seemingly bent out of shape about the shenanigans that were standard procedure on Wall Street, what really was going on downtown must have been worse than previously thought.
For GOP politicians who believe that nirvana is to cut taxes for the wealthy and deregulate all forms of business so that the so-called free market can work its magic, to be so publicly upset with the boys from Goldman suggests that either they have read the polls that indicate about 65 percent of Americans want to see Wall Street more strenuously regulated or even they cannot avoid the truth of what happened.
To see Republicans so casually comparing Wall Street, as represented by Goldman, to be no better than a gambling casino--in fact Coburn went further than one of his Democrat colleagues to say that at least Las Vegas casinos aren't rigged: betters know the odds before playing while on Wall Street the odds kept changing and the investment-bettors never were informed--suggests to me that was too much fraud for even the GOP to deny.
Let's hope, therefore, that after grilling the Goldman employees they go back to the floor of the Senate and vote for strong reregulation and stop their absurd spinning and filibustering.
Second thought:
It both angers me and breaks my heart to see these young, bright market-makers, as they describe themselves, wasting their time at Goldman where all there was and is to do is to make money essentially via fraud or dissembling by packaging and then pawning off on their clients financial products that have no utility whatsoever and do not in any measurable way contribute to our economy or our national well being.
How sad that none of them thought for a second to do something worthwhile: start a business that would actually do something and create jobs, go to medical school, engage in research, become an architect, or think about teaching.
For them, there is still time. God knows they have the resources they need to make a career change.
Footnote: While the hearings proceeded, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by about 215 points, or 2 percent, while the value of a share of Goldman stock rose by nearly 1 percent.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
4:26 AM
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