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Goldman Sachs: (Don't Gotta) Dance with the One That Brung Ya
Glenn Greenwald composes another ode to the enviable Goldman Sachs successunder the Obama administration.
It's pretty axiomatic that you need a big sponsor(s) to rise in the "art" of politics - Harry Truman had a Kansas City boss to push him up the ladder, Joe Biden was known as the Senator of MBNA, John McCain had his S&L buddies among other influential friends. But Obama's been considered some quirk of nature, a politician who was pure and just had supporters who liked him because he was something like Stuart Smiley. (Okay, maybe there is a bit of this quirk in Al Franken, though as usual I'll withhold opinion until I care/research).
So who brought Obama? Or as one Chicago Sun-Times piece seemed to note, Obama has skipped from one dance partner to another in his brief but torrential rise to the top. Of course the only way this would work over time is if the new dance partner is happy having even a short whirl around the dance floor. There used to be a song "as you go through life make this your goal, watch the donut, not the hole", but there is no hole these days, just a big honking Krispy Kreme Supreme. And of course few seem to care. Why "of course"? Because they're
all busy watching the fluff piece called "Republican-Democrat Football", the he-said-he-said back-and-forth that poses as politics as crooks load the house valuables out the front door into the van. Trillions continue to go bye-bye, and the national discourse is over the Nobel Peace Prize, as if "peace" weren't a quaint anachronism in the Eternal War on Terruh?
So whether the voters brought Obama to this dance or the Chicago Machine,it's pretty obvious he's got another fine young thang to keep his eyes enthralledand his step right lively. My guess is there'll be some sour faces at the bar whenthe dance lets out. But Goldman Sachs won't be one of them - they're used toplaying party girl and one-night stand, the Holly Golightly of our modern Wall Streetcircuit. Having a call girl's ethics is rather beneficial in these sodden times,especially with so many eager suitors having fists full of dollars up their trousers -just happy to see her, or another financial instrument in their pocket? Whichever way it leans, we're past the time when a billion here and a billion there was real money. "Trillions" is the denomination du jour, and Goldman Sachs has somehowmanaged to wind its way to the front of the call line. Whether a match made inheaven or simply a product of Harvard and Wall Street? I'll take the atheist route.God is dead, but the Dow might rise again. And the rest can go eat cake.
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Well, now, that was a pretty hard read, having it all laid out in one narrative. His sarcasm fell a bit flat given the enormity of the story.
Dylan Ratigan's video was pretty damning, even if as Glenn says, simplistic.
The blonde with him asks, 'Is this illegal, or immoral?'
'Depends on your feeling on stealing; it's legalized stealing.'
'Goldman Sachs spent 43 million dollars on lobbying and contributions since 1989.' That'll buy ya some influence, eh?
I don't guess it's likely that Congress will repeal the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, is it? Or repeal Glass-Steagall?
I want my money back.
I want my money back.
I want my money back.
Thanks for the heads-up on Glenn's piece, Desidero. We should all not kill ourselves, by the way. There'll be some politico's sex scandal to divert us...
October 18, 2009 5:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
"'Goldman Sachs spent 43 million dollars on lobbying and contributions since 1989.' That'll buy ya some influence, eh?"
Uh, that's about $2 million a year in lobbying and contributions. A couple grand per congressman. The friggin Duck Pluckers Association spends more than that on their PAC.
October 18, 2009 11:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
You don't need to contribute to all of them, just the key ones on committees. You pay lobbyists for access to the Deciders.
Duck Pluckers Association was good, though!
October 18, 2009 11:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, they are now earning more than $100 million a day (even in this crappy economy), so I would have expected them to be a bit more generous.
October 18, 2009 11:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
I know we all had to wait while those first (awful) economic appointments (like Summers) were made... and then had to wait to see what kinds of actions they took (Stimulus I, II and III)... and then had to wait to see who would (eventually) fill the second-tier jobs... and then had to wait to see how the policies worked... and of course, we always have to wait to see if any ju jitsu's going on... but after all this waiting, I gotta say --
1. Barack Obama is in Big Money's pocket now, whether he was in the past or not.
2. His economic outlook shows absolutely no signs of innovation or imagination, and is not even well-balanced in traditional liberal-left terms.
3. He is hiring from very particular self-interests, a pattern that cannot be denied, and which shows no signs of stopping.
I don't care who you are or how well you speak, you cannot hand out monies in this pattern, sidestep only certain commitments, avoid tackling quite particular evils, keep hiring certain types of people, and not have some stink stick to you.
He's another goddamn money-loving yuppie who's trying to tell himself he's not selling out, his intentions are good, his friends deserve their pay, and this is the way the world works.
More gutless yuppie scum.
October 18, 2009 6:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Clear speak, I fear, from Desidero and Quinn.
I agree. Though I grieve.
October 18, 2009 7:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
trying to tell himself he's not selling out, his intentions are good, his friends deserve their pay, and this is the way the world works.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
October 19, 2009 12:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
I hate to say it, but you're right on, Obama's greatest weakness right now (among many) is his soft-pedaling approach to the financial oligarchy. Seems he's not only letting the barbarians back through the gate, he's allowing them to resume raping and pillaging.
October 19, 2009 3:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
"He's another goddamn money-loving yuppie who's trying to tell himself he's not selling out, his intentions are good, his friends deserve their pay, and this is the way the world works.
More gutless yuppie scum."
Right on the money Quinn, er so to speak!
One little revision though. I don't think his intentions are good. Sure he rationalizes what he's doing but he knows that he's essentially amoral. The worst part about it is I think he has absolutely no misgivings about it precisely because he knows he'll be taken care of no matter how badly he's fucking over the other 300 million of us.
October 19, 2009 3:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
He's just letting all the money get concentrated in one place so it'll be easier to tax and redistribute.
October 18, 2009 7:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
How about I concentrate all YOUR money over here, Rootman?
October 18, 2009 7:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
I've looked around and they don't seem to have any of it. My federal and local taxes are down. My variable interest rate payments are down. My 401K has doubled since he took office. They gave me cash for my clunker. Does Goldman really have any of my money? No, I think they have a bunch of rich guys' money, which is fine for me. The government will take it back when it needs it. It's not real money anyway.
October 18, 2009 7:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Before you get all happy-faced on your 401k, you might want to see what it's invested in before the next bubble smacks it back down. Maybe it will seem more like "real money" then.
October 18, 2009 10:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
So they are going to take my money but they haven't yet? The Wall Street/Acorn/Rev. Wright/Richard Daley cabal that gave Obama the White House (defeating the despised McCain in the process) so he could kick his community organizing up a notch to please his Goldman Sachs overlords?
October 18, 2009 10:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nah, I was thinking of commercial mortgages, following lackluster Christmas sales, subsequent retail bankruptcies, defaults on the loans, and the derivatives tied to them.
October 18, 2009 11:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Christmas sales will lag due to low retail inventories.
October 18, 2009 11:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
And that changes what?
October 18, 2009 11:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
No new shoes for the piggy.
October 18, 2009 11:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Never expected them. If you had told me I wasn't getting my lump of coal I would have been surprised.
October 19, 2009 1:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
You're not getting your lump of coal.
(The Rootman stole it and invested it in his 401k.)
October 19, 2009 1:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
He can have it. That lump of coal won't be worth a turnip, (no offense rutabaga ridgepole), by the time Rootman tries to collect.
October 19, 2009 1:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hey! Lay off the turnip tribe!
October 19, 2009 8:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
"If you prick us do we not bleed?"
You know better, Rutabaga (no mater how hard you squeeze). I know you didn't just fall off the people truck?
October 19, 2009 12:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
"...people truck."
Har! Good one!
October 19, 2009 1:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
This really gets to the heart of the matter for me:
"Money" has basically been completely redefined over the last couple decades to the point where it is essentially meaningless as a baseline measure for anything. Now it is more about small spheres of influence looking for any advantage and "money" is as easy a way to keep score as any.If we can figure out a way to push the lower end of the income scale high enough to meet the true cost of living, economic stratification, at least in the US, should improve dramatically. I don't know what Obama's ultimate strategy is, but since he was elected for four years, I am willing to give him some more time straighten this rat's nest out.
Sun Tzu said it best, as far as I am concerned, when it comes to the game at hand: Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.
October 19, 2009 8:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
Obama could have purged Wall Street, like Bush did to the Iraqi military and civil service. Instead, he is bringing in Wall Street veterans who are entering into public service to fill positions that were held by regulators who were clueless and had circles run around them under Bush. Is Wall Street taking over Washington or is Washington taking over Wall Street? Is there a difference?
October 19, 2009 12:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Chocolate... Vanilla?
Male... Female?
Germany... England?
Palin... Obama?
Is there a difference? YOU DECIDE!
October 19, 2009 12:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
That was pretty much the only way I could see it having a part of a larger strategy.
Otherwise it is putting the foxes in charge of the hen house. Or is it letting the inmates run the asylum?
Not sure how to decide that one.
October 20, 2009 8:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
Great line. A thousand times a billion.
October 18, 2009 7:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
I thought I was depressed BEFORE I read this. Oh. And I saw Michael Moore's latest last weekend.
October 18, 2009 7:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
We're punking Goldman like we did to the Japanese real estate investors.
October 18, 2009 7:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama is president of the freakin world and he doesn't kowtow to Wall Street.
I liked Des's old posts when he used to be funny.
October 18, 2009 7:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dude, you can't be serious about the kowtowing.
Or about the funny.
October 18, 2009 8:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Especially the funny.
October 18, 2009 8:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama doesn't kowtow to Wall Street? How about all those new regulations? Or his deciding not to go after corporate tax cheats? Excessive executive comp and bonuses? He's the president of the world, but can't meet with the Dalai Lama for fear of hurting China's feelings or keep his campaign promises re: Darfur?
Obama's tough talk in the campaign was a way more obvious hoax than Balloon Boy.
October 19, 2009 12:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
The Secretary of State is doing a superb job on Tibet and Sudan. New policy announcements today on Darfur, and we are getting tough. Tibet is not something we can go to war over, and the diplomats are doing great but quiet work, without Obama having to make paper tiger promises to the Dalai Lama that we realistically could never keep. Quiet incentives to China and just hope for this to work out for Tibet over time...
October 19, 2009 3:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
October 18, 2009 8:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
The failing banks won't lend! Make them lend! No, make them increase their reserves! No, make them reduce profits! No, they are all failing! Make them repay the government! No, make them lend!
October 18, 2009 11:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
That mishmash is an excellent approximation of the Obama/Summers/Geithner "plan" for saving the banks, Rootman!
All I would add is the sound of Obama's economic team farting in unison when anybody asks about "the public good."
October 19, 2009 8:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
Axelrod and Rahm were on the sunday shows yesterday; they were "shocked!" and "digusted" by the billions the banks were holding in reserve for bonuses. Yeppers. Legal stealing.
October 19, 2009 1:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
When you bail them out to the tune of 14 Trillion dollars so they will lend again and then the don't lend but instead distribute the largest bonsues they've ever given what should the government response be? SOCIALIZE the banks! That's what the response should be. Do away with those thieves and their legalized "investment" casino operation.
October 19, 2009 3:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Frank Rich had a good op-ed yesterday on the subject, likening Goldman-Sachs to Standard Oil in the hey-day of Teddy Roosevelts trust busting. His closing quote:
October 18, 2009 10:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Whew!...good thing we avoided the stranglehold of the oil industry! Thanks, Teddy. Nice parks, too.
October 18, 2009 10:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, the anti-trust suit had more to do with one particular company, Standard Oil, that dominated,(85+% of the market), controlled the oil prices and perhaps more importantly the means of distribution, (the railroads), rather than the industry as a whole. And yeah, great parks indeed.
October 18, 2009 11:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm confused. Aren't we still being strangled by big oil? Hello?
October 19, 2009 3:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
I thought we were talking about specific companies and their business practices. In the case of TR the company was Standard Oil, and the industry was petroleum. Now under Obama, the company in question is Goldman-Sachs and the industry is finance. Try to keep up. This is becoming tedious.
October 19, 2009 4:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Goldman Sachs is hardly in the same position today as Standard Oil was then. Try reading an American history book once and a while. Teaching you basic shit is becoming tedious.
October 20, 2009 8:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
Blow me.
October 20, 2009 2:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Erudite as always, though about what I would expect from a pig.
October 20, 2009 7:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Let me clarify for you: Blow me Jason, you tedious troll.
October 20, 2009 11:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
I guess putting shoes on a pig does nothing to civilize it.
October 21, 2009 6:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
FREE THE MARKETS!
Unless that would mean that they have to actually compete. OMG!!!
Poor widdle bankers.
October 18, 2009 10:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Breaking out of my commenting lethargy to say it's nice to see the mushroom cloud around.
October 19, 2009 12:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks, been on the road, apparently left my humorly Felix bag o' tricks on the plane as some say. Will depend on the Baga to supply my har har har's for now, outsourcing rulez. Here's the dour cloud delivering teh dismal.
October 19, 2009 2:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
You call this "dismal?"
Harharharhar!!!
I'll show you dismal!
"Say goodbye to the Arctic ice cap!"
It's the end of the fucking world! And I'm laughing!
Harharharharharharharharharharhar...
(I can't stop.)
October 19, 2009 9:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
I have read that there is a predictable cascade effect with the melting polar cap. Warmer sea water would kill many of the smaller organisms, plankton, krill, etc. that feed so many aquatic species, then the food change would be interrupted all the way to the top. It's not just the polar bears, though they understandably bring in the revenue to the Defenders of the Polar Ice caps.
p.s. Rutabaga, Christmas is coming; will you change to a seasonal Hhohohohohoho soon?
Harhar reminds me of 'hardy-har-har' of the 1950's.
Through the window I can see two gigundo fawns nursing their ma; she is not amused. I'll go toss them some apples; Shhhh! Don't rat me out to the DOW...
October 19, 2009 9:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
By a not too remarkable coincidence, since I live at the edge of a big state park, I also have deer running by all the time, and likewise a couple of fawns probably at about the same stage as your "gigundos" in the mix. One ran by me last night at a distance of 25 or 30 feet, in almost total silence!
80 pounds, running 35 mph, and...
Silence!
But they can hear me coming half a mile away.
October 19, 2009 12:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hear? Hear?
"Amongst humans, the odor of cooked turnip is so pronounced that it has at times been used for military purposes (enhancing concealment).... In other species, the reaction is at times even stronger, with the tribes of Northern Britain using it as a means of stunning deer."
Before driving them over 50 foot cliffs!
Harharharhar!
October 19, 2009 12:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
"...over 50 foot cliffs, where they landed on deep, steaming piles of Canadian bullshit, and turned into unicorns!"
Harharharhar!!!
October 19, 2009 1:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bygones, asshats. (Teacher smacks their hands with a ruler.)
If you start that shite up again, I will make you take out your flashlights, and measure them in front of the class. Now, I am speaking to you; look at me, young men!
October 19, 2009 1:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's true, I red it on teh internets.
October 19, 2009 3:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
It actually probably is a pretty big coincidence. These get too tame, really, but there's really nothing for it. They've been forced to by encroaching development. My husband left yesterday to make the trek to see his AD mother. Before he left, he told me another story of a woman who was injured trying to pet a buck. I do get close to some, the ones I can tell are my friends, and don't see me as a threat. I wonder if since I walk a bit like a drunken moose, if it helps them see me as a neutral apple-dispenser. I do stay away when they are in pursuit of, you know, carnal pleasures...
Don't you love to watch them leap over things? They just gather their muscles from a full stop standing, and BOING, they clear their fence or obstacle. It knocks me out. I swear if I didn't live in this little game preserve I would lose my fucking mind.
October 19, 2009 1:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bucks are so much smaller than what we usually think of as dangerous animals with horns or antlers that all sorts of people who ought to know better will try to "make friends" with them. This is always a bad idea, because if a buck jams you up against a solid obstacle, it can push those cute little antlers right through you.
Those guys can go over a 15-foot obstacle like you and I jump a curb, and the same amount of muscle-power directed at your diaphragm is no joke at all.
And thanks for this thread about deer, wendy. It's so much more pleasant to think about those beautiful creatures than the vermin we usually discuss here.
October 19, 2009 1:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, no, when the cloud turns dismal, there will be no enlivened orange to be sure. The dismal science, the dismal cloud, they will merge, one day, but not today.
October 19, 2009 10:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
Cloud? I thought it was a maple tree covered with peanut butter. That homely image was a source of constant reassurance to me, and now you say it's a flaming cloud!
Eeek!
On the plus side...
I love that line!
October 19, 2009 12:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Where do trillions go to die?
October 19, 2009 12:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
October 19, 2009 1:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Into 401K's.
October 19, 2009 1:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
The pig told me to cash mine in this morning. Now the market's up 100 points :(
Where did that money go?
October 19, 2009 3:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Into my 401K.
October 19, 2009 3:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
For your benefit, it's really vegetable, not mineral, slightly combustible. Spuds vs. buds, it's more an upside down root with a little too much ambition. And that color? Persimmon? Saffron? They call me Mellow Yellow. Quite rightly. I am an upside down root with an inverted color spectra. But for the duration of the war, I will identify as Golden Poppy in solidarity with troops who protect our freedoms.
October 19, 2009 4:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
And for $20 Sid, NAME THOSE FREEDOMS!
October 19, 2009 4:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
The freedom to root, to bifurcate, to puff up, to wisp and willow, to pollinate, to hydrolyze, to incinerate, to eviscerate. Freedoms worth killing over, if you ask me.
October 19, 2009 4:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Die, anti-hydrolyzering scum.
October 19, 2009 5:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hardly scum, in fact more like air freshener, like after a summer rain. Feel the electrolytes, feel the ionizing air freshener. Don't be so negative, chum.
October 19, 2009 5:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Now you're sounding like Red Kelly.
Always with the negative ions, Moriarty.
October 19, 2009 5:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Too much negativity, man. I just drive 'em, I don't fix 'em. Woof woof.
October 19, 2009 6:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm wondering what's so hard about this. Just book the various new Fed and Treasury liabilities in such a way - eg. on the FDIC's balance sheet - such that the banks have to pay off the losses as they appear. So have a special assessment-like fee as a cut of prop trading revenue (i.e. 90% of GS' last quarter's revenue). As net income falls accordingly, so will these outrageous compensations packages. And that way things are set up so that the financial sector effectively is self-insuring against systemic shocks of insolvency risks - the more profitable paying for the less profitable. Deeply unfair to the more profitable, but that should just incentivize the industry as a whole to get on board with systemic reform.
The only reason things aren't being set up so that the industry is self-insuring is that the administration WANTS to hand them trillions of dollars in tax-payer funds. All in exchange for a few million in lobbyist funds. Not just corrupt - but stupid.
October 19, 2009 9:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
Not just corrupt - but stupid.
Can I add heartbreaking?
October 19, 2009 12:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
"...over 50 foot cliffs, where they landed on deep, steaming piles of Canadian bullshit, and turned into unicorns!"
Harharharhar!!!
October 19, 2009 1:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Mr. Baga; hold out your hands in front of you (Whack!) Now that will be the last time before the flashlights come out in front of the ENTIRE class!
October 19, 2009 1:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Are you going to read Measure for Measure out loud?
October 19, 2009 6:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Snicker.
October 19, 2009 1:40 PM | Reply | Permalink