13 signs the Big Bank Conspiracy is a moral threat
Commentary: Goldman’s ‘soul sick’ pathology is spreading
By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch
Aug. 12, 2013, 10:00 a.m. EDT
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (MarketWatch) — The symptoms of a deadly Big Bank moral pathology are everywhere. But they can’t see. And it’s getting worse. Does America see?
Do you? Yes, Big Banks are morally blind, do not care what taxpayers, investors and politicians think ... Huffington Post says eight agencies are investigating J.P. Morgan for fraud, while CEO Jamie Dimon yawns ... billionaires are saving three times what they did in 2007, they see the crash coming ... Bill Gross says the 30-year bull in our $32 trillion bond market is over, “you’re going to lose money investing” ... Economist Robert Gordon warns that America’s GDP growth will be less than 1% by 2100.
But Big Banks have short-term brains. They only see the one rule of capitalism: Make profits. What about public interest? Not part of a corporation agenda. Not with CEOs like Dimon and Goldman Sachs’s Lloyd Blankfein, traders, executives and vice presidents who expect huge bonuses. Short-term profits always trump long-term public interests. Always.
Pedestrians walk past Goldman Sachs Group Inc. headquarters in New York
Has Goldman’s moral pathology infected a Big Banks Conspiracy?
Let me remind you again of John C. Bogle’s great classic, “The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism: How the Financial System Undermined Social Ideals, Damaged Trust in the Markets, Robbed Investors of Trillions.” That was 2005, Vanguard’s founder warned us Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” was no longer driving “capitalism in a healthy, positive direction.”
Bogle saw a “happy conspiracy” of Wall Street, Washington and Corporate America was spreading a “pathological mutation of capitalism” driven by the new “invisible hands” of this conspiracy pushing their selfish agenda in a war to control American democracy and capitalism. Goldman Sachs had a winning hand, and the competition wanted one too.
They won: Democracy is dead. Capitalism is dead. Our moral compass is broken. More proof? See for yourself the 13 signs of the “pathological mutation of capitalism” that Bogle fears. How it’s metasticized right under our noses. How Goldman’s pathogens spread so rapidly since the 2008 crash they are infecting every other Wall Street bank, plus the global Big Banks Conspiracy, the world’s top hundred banks?
You decide. See for yourself: Here are earlier news reports paraphrasing the 13 symptoms of a “soul sickness” pandemic spreading from Goldman Sachs’s pathology:
1. Messiah complex
London Times’ John Arlidge interviewed Goldman CEO Blankfein: In 2007 he paid himself $68 million ... now worth more than $500 million, yet insists banking has a social purpose ... he’s a “blue-collar guy” ... just doing “God’s work.” When I was at Morgan Stanley we ran an ad: “If God Wanted To Do a Financing, He Would Call Morgan Stanley.” And kill America?
2. Conflicts of interests
New York Times: ‘Before becoming Treasury Secretary in 2006, Hank Paulson agreed to hold himself to a higher ethical standard than his predecessors. He specifically said he’d avoid his old buddies at Goldman where he was CEO. Later Congress saw many conflicts of interest, not just meetings but favorable treatment for his buddies at Goldman.’
3. Arrogant vampires
Four years ago in Seeking Alpha: “Goldman is America’s most hated corporation.” Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi called Goldman “a giant vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity.” Bank greed triggered the crash. Investors suffered heavy losses. But banks got bailouts, enjoyed $30 billion in bonuses.’ Banks are convinced: What’s good for Goldman is good for the country. What’s good for Goldman is good for the world.
4. Paranoid secrecy
Bloomberg exposed the “NY Fed’s Secret Deal on AIG” ... paid off $180 billion in AIG swaps backing CDOs ... Paulson and Bernanke bailed out Goldman for $13 billion more taxpayer money than necessary, saving them from bankruptcy, fleecing the public.
5. Perjurers on top
Wall Street Journal: Goldman insisted no damage if AIG collapsed. A later report killed that excuse. Even then New York Fed Chairman Timothy Geithner admitted Goldman was legally obligated to cover AIG losses. They lied: if AIG collapsed, Goldman would be bankrupt.
6. Pathological liars
McClatchy News: “Goldman secretly bet on the U.S. housing crash after peddling more than $40 billion in securities backed by 200,000 risky home mortgages ... but never told investors they were secretly betting on a drop in housing prices that could wipe out the value of the securities.” Treasury Secretary Paulson knew, but never disclosed: “Goldman’s triple-A investments were junk.”
7. Ratings con game
New York Examiner: “Goldman was at the heart of the subprime crash, selling subprime junk as no-risk AAA bonds, then gambling, hedging, shorting these investments ... That set up the meltdown. ... taxpayers got stuck with the bill.” McClatchy exposed how Moody’s made billions selling triple-A ratings; a U.S. bailout overseer “called this reckless gambling.”
8. Greedy foreclosers
McClatchy News reported that “an obscure Goldman subsidiary spent years buying hundreds of thousands of subprime mortgages ... repackaged them ... The bottom fell out. Now, after years of refusing to disclose they owned the mortgages, the secret is out” — Goldman is “one of America’s biggest, greediest foreclosers.”
9. Phony confessions
CBS MoneyWatch: “Blankfein now says he’s ‘sorry for the role Goldman played in the housing crisis: We participated in things that were clearly wrong.’ Wrong? Isn’t that an outright admission of something ‘clearly criminal.’ He admits to a criminal fraud, offers some phony ‘restitution,’ $100 million annually for 5 years to small business owners. That’s Goldman’s profits from one good trading day. Yet, no prosecutions.”
10. Cheating government
Barron’s: Geithner bragged about the fabulous returns taxpayers made off the Goldman deal: 23% return on $5 billion. Meanwhile, Buffett’s loan guarantee to Goldman netted him a 120% return as Goldman’s shares went from $115 to $180, plus 8% warrants.
11. Charity is PR stunt
New York Times examined Goldman charitable foundation’s tax filing: “The money to Goldman’s foundation is dwarfed compared to insiders’ bonuses. The foundation got $400 million, gave away $22 million. Bonuses were 20 times more.” Good PR?
12. Shorting Christmas
USA Today wrote Goldman should be celebrating the holidays. But the mood at the bank was one of crisis about the public backlash over huge employee bonuses. So they canceled the party, went on a PR blitz to cover up the damage, launching a $500 million program for small businesses. Bottom line, for Big Banks all moral issues are simply PR problems.
13. Blind money addicts
New York Times’ Maureen Dowd: “Goldman’s trickle-down catechism isn’t working. We have two economies. In the past decade Wall Street’s shared little with society. Their culture is totally money-obsessed. There’s always room for a bigger house, bigger boat. If not, you’re falling behind. It’s an addiction. And Washington’s done little to quell it, coddles wanton bankers. Obama’s absent. ‘Saturday Night Live’ was tougher. And as far as doing God’s work: The bankers who took taxpayer money, pocketing obscene bonuses: They’re the same greedy types Jesus threw out of the temple.’
Now it’s your turn. How bad is it out there? How many of Goldman’s 13 symptoms still fit? Is it worse? How much more has Goldman’s toxic virus metastasized since the 2008 crash? Infected the global Big Banks Conspiracy that’s killing democracy and destroying the economy with its “mutant capitalism?”
Can we do anything about it? Or do we need a total system failure, another Great Depression before the global Big Banks Conspiracy wakes up?
http://www.marketwatch.com/Story/story/print?...2128040CF6
Commentary: Goldman’s ‘soul sick’ pathology is spreading
By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch
Aug. 12, 2013, 10:00 a.m. EDT
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (MarketWatch) — The symptoms of a deadly Big Bank moral pathology are everywhere. But they can’t see. And it’s getting worse. Does America see?
Do you? Yes, Big Banks are morally blind, do not care what taxpayers, investors and politicians think ... Huffington Post says eight agencies are investigating J.P. Morgan for fraud, while CEO Jamie Dimon yawns ... billionaires are saving three times what they did in 2007, they see the crash coming ... Bill Gross says the 30-year bull in our $32 trillion bond market is over, “you’re going to lose money investing” ... Economist Robert Gordon warns that America’s GDP growth will be less than 1% by 2100.
But Big Banks have short-term brains. They only see the one rule of capitalism: Make profits. What about public interest? Not part of a corporation agenda. Not with CEOs like Dimon and Goldman Sachs’s Lloyd Blankfein, traders, executives and vice presidents who expect huge bonuses. Short-term profits always trump long-term public interests. Always.
Pedestrians walk past Goldman Sachs Group Inc. headquarters in New York
Has Goldman’s moral pathology infected a Big Banks Conspiracy?
Let me remind you again of John C. Bogle’s great classic, “The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism: How the Financial System Undermined Social Ideals, Damaged Trust in the Markets, Robbed Investors of Trillions.” That was 2005, Vanguard’s founder warned us Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” was no longer driving “capitalism in a healthy, positive direction.”
Bogle saw a “happy conspiracy” of Wall Street, Washington and Corporate America was spreading a “pathological mutation of capitalism” driven by the new “invisible hands” of this conspiracy pushing their selfish agenda in a war to control American democracy and capitalism. Goldman Sachs had a winning hand, and the competition wanted one too.
They won: Democracy is dead. Capitalism is dead. Our moral compass is broken. More proof? See for yourself the 13 signs of the “pathological mutation of capitalism” that Bogle fears. How it’s metasticized right under our noses. How Goldman’s pathogens spread so rapidly since the 2008 crash they are infecting every other Wall Street bank, plus the global Big Banks Conspiracy, the world’s top hundred banks?
You decide. See for yourself: Here are earlier news reports paraphrasing the 13 symptoms of a “soul sickness” pandemic spreading from Goldman Sachs’s pathology:
1. Messiah complex
London Times’ John Arlidge interviewed Goldman CEO Blankfein: In 2007 he paid himself $68 million ... now worth more than $500 million, yet insists banking has a social purpose ... he’s a “blue-collar guy” ... just doing “God’s work.” When I was at Morgan Stanley we ran an ad: “If God Wanted To Do a Financing, He Would Call Morgan Stanley.” And kill America?
2. Conflicts of interests
New York Times: ‘Before becoming Treasury Secretary in 2006, Hank Paulson agreed to hold himself to a higher ethical standard than his predecessors. He specifically said he’d avoid his old buddies at Goldman where he was CEO. Later Congress saw many conflicts of interest, not just meetings but favorable treatment for his buddies at Goldman.’
3. Arrogant vampires
Four years ago in Seeking Alpha: “Goldman is America’s most hated corporation.” Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi called Goldman “a giant vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity.” Bank greed triggered the crash. Investors suffered heavy losses. But banks got bailouts, enjoyed $30 billion in bonuses.’ Banks are convinced: What’s good for Goldman is good for the country. What’s good for Goldman is good for the world.
4. Paranoid secrecy
Bloomberg exposed the “NY Fed’s Secret Deal on AIG” ... paid off $180 billion in AIG swaps backing CDOs ... Paulson and Bernanke bailed out Goldman for $13 billion more taxpayer money than necessary, saving them from bankruptcy, fleecing the public.
5. Perjurers on top
Wall Street Journal: Goldman insisted no damage if AIG collapsed. A later report killed that excuse. Even then New York Fed Chairman Timothy Geithner admitted Goldman was legally obligated to cover AIG losses. They lied: if AIG collapsed, Goldman would be bankrupt.
6. Pathological liars
McClatchy News: “Goldman secretly bet on the U.S. housing crash after peddling more than $40 billion in securities backed by 200,000 risky home mortgages ... but never told investors they were secretly betting on a drop in housing prices that could wipe out the value of the securities.” Treasury Secretary Paulson knew, but never disclosed: “Goldman’s triple-A investments were junk.”
7. Ratings con game
New York Examiner: “Goldman was at the heart of the subprime crash, selling subprime junk as no-risk AAA bonds, then gambling, hedging, shorting these investments ... That set up the meltdown. ... taxpayers got stuck with the bill.” McClatchy exposed how Moody’s made billions selling triple-A ratings; a U.S. bailout overseer “called this reckless gambling.”
8. Greedy foreclosers
McClatchy News reported that “an obscure Goldman subsidiary spent years buying hundreds of thousands of subprime mortgages ... repackaged them ... The bottom fell out. Now, after years of refusing to disclose they owned the mortgages, the secret is out” — Goldman is “one of America’s biggest, greediest foreclosers.”
9. Phony confessions
CBS MoneyWatch: “Blankfein now says he’s ‘sorry for the role Goldman played in the housing crisis: We participated in things that were clearly wrong.’ Wrong? Isn’t that an outright admission of something ‘clearly criminal.’ He admits to a criminal fraud, offers some phony ‘restitution,’ $100 million annually for 5 years to small business owners. That’s Goldman’s profits from one good trading day. Yet, no prosecutions.”
10. Cheating government
Barron’s: Geithner bragged about the fabulous returns taxpayers made off the Goldman deal: 23% return on $5 billion. Meanwhile, Buffett’s loan guarantee to Goldman netted him a 120% return as Goldman’s shares went from $115 to $180, plus 8% warrants.
11. Charity is PR stunt
New York Times examined Goldman charitable foundation’s tax filing: “The money to Goldman’s foundation is dwarfed compared to insiders’ bonuses. The foundation got $400 million, gave away $22 million. Bonuses were 20 times more.” Good PR?
12. Shorting Christmas
USA Today wrote Goldman should be celebrating the holidays. But the mood at the bank was one of crisis about the public backlash over huge employee bonuses. So they canceled the party, went on a PR blitz to cover up the damage, launching a $500 million program for small businesses. Bottom line, for Big Banks all moral issues are simply PR problems.
13. Blind money addicts
New York Times’ Maureen Dowd: “Goldman’s trickle-down catechism isn’t working. We have two economies. In the past decade Wall Street’s shared little with society. Their culture is totally money-obsessed. There’s always room for a bigger house, bigger boat. If not, you’re falling behind. It’s an addiction. And Washington’s done little to quell it, coddles wanton bankers. Obama’s absent. ‘Saturday Night Live’ was tougher. And as far as doing God’s work: The bankers who took taxpayer money, pocketing obscene bonuses: They’re the same greedy types Jesus threw out of the temple.’
Now it’s your turn. How bad is it out there? How many of Goldman’s 13 symptoms still fit? Is it worse? How much more has Goldman’s toxic virus metastasized since the 2008 crash? Infected the global Big Banks Conspiracy that’s killing democracy and destroying the economy with its “mutant capitalism?”
Can we do anything about it? Or do we need a total system failure, another Great Depression before the global Big Banks Conspiracy wakes up?
http://www.marketwatch.com/Story/story/print?...2128040CF6
