Political Discussions
Goldman Sachs Responsible for U.S. Economic Bubbles?
Posted by satijournal • 7/08/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: Economy, politics
The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it's everywhere. The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.
Any attempt to construct a narrative around all the former Goldmanites in influential positions quickly becomes an absurd and pointless exercise, like trying to make a list of everything. What you need to know is the big picture: If America is circling the drain, Goldman Sachs has found a way to be that drain — an extremely unfortunate loophole in the system of Western democratic capitalism, which never foresaw that in a society governed passively by free markets and free elections, organized greed always defeats disorganized democracy.
They achieve this using the same playbook over and over again. The formula is relatively simple: Goldman positions itself in the middle of a speculative bubble, selling investments they know are crap. Then they hoover up vast sums from the middle and lower floors of society with the aid of a crippled and corrupt state that allows it to rewrite the rules in exchange for the relative pennies the bank throws at political patronage. Finally, when it all goes bust, leaving millions of ordinary citizens broke and starving, they begin the entire process over again, riding in to rescue us all by lending us back our own money at interest, selling themselves as men above greed, just a bunch of really smart guys keeping the wheels greased. They've been pulling this same stunt over and over since the 1920s — and now they're preparing to do it again, creating what may be the biggest and most audacious bubble yet.
www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/28816321/the_great_american_bubble_mach...
Goldman Sachs donated a lot of money to Obama's campaign and other high profile Democrats, which could be why the wheels of change are turning so slowly.
Thoughts?
User Comments
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They and other investment banks need to be busted up.
If you are "too big to fail," then you are simply too big. duh!-
You're right. Rather than bailing out the banks, they should have been nationalised.
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This article is pretty scary. The author claims the next big bubble with be with the proposed cap-and-trade policy and the taxpayer will once again get the shaft:
If cap-and-trade succeeds, won't we all be saved from the catastrophe of global warming? Maybe - but cap-and-trade, as envisioned by Goldman, is really just a carbon tax structured so that private interests collect the revenues. Instead of simply imposing a fixed government levy on carbon pollution and forcing unclean energy producers to pay for the mess they make, cap-and-trade will allow a small tribe of greedy-as-hell Wall Street swine to turn yet another commodities market into a private tax-collection scheme. This is worse than the bailout: It allows the bank to seize taxpayer money before it's even collected. -
*sigh* The best way possible in beating out the too big too fail, too greedy to stop companies is to simply stop using them.
Make yourselves as indepenently self sufficient as humanely possible. Open a community garden and livestock yard if you must. Purchase energy equipment such as solar panels, dig wells, and stop using credit cards.
Stop asking for loans, fix your own cars. Borrow and buy as little as possible.
Then they will go away, and when they crash, you will still have a home, food, and utilities - therefore it will hardly affect you personally.
Get off the grid, and things will change by sheer force of the market.-
but our 401(k)'s!
The collective ownership of the means of production will suffer!
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The best way possible in beating out the too big too fail, too greedy to stop companies is to simply stop using them.
Most people can't. We need them to provide mortgages for our homes and loans for our businesses. Without credit, the world stops turning (metaphorically speaking). -
You can, Sati - everyone can. It will cause drastic change, yes - but it can be done. Credit is like crack - it's addictive and destructive. The only way to stop it is to go into rehab, and stop using it.
We've been credit free for years now - it's liberating!
Of course, that means that some things take longer to do. Instead of simply borrowing to get something you want, you have to actually save up for it. That changes your priorities a great deal, and you quickly realize what you really need or want vs what is simply a passing fad or bad business plan that you can live without.
If more people worked as hard for their things by saving up and really prioritizing, I'll bet you that fewer businesses would act in the way that they have for the last few decades, and fewer people would be in the trouble they're in. Resulting in far fewer and less dramatic economic crises.
If you REALLY want change, the time honored tradition of a boycott on a grand scale will do just that.
What do you think would happen if everyone simply stopped paying their loans simultaneously? Banks would go under, and loans would be a thing of the past, and people would lose nothing. -
"We've been credit free for years now - it's liberating!"
Stop that un-American talk right now! The American way is to be in debt up to your eyeballs! -
yeah! Scrimping and saving is for commies!
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Well Thhbbbpppt on both of you!
You know, most of the time I think that simply withdrawing from society is a cop-out for people who no longer want to put any effort into progress and improving society as a whole. And then there are days when I think "F$#^@*ck this shit, I'm gonna go live in the woods! To hell with all you freaks!" -
tell it sista! What's wrong with living in a bunker full of ammo anyway?
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Nothing at all
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Well, the ninja mask would come in handy while living in a bunker full of ammo...
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The piece raises some interesting points, but would have been much more credible under a less controversial author.
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What points did you find interesting? After all... this is a discussion forum.
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I liked how he explained the dot com fiasco of the '90s and I agree with him on his ire with the oil speculators who only have to put up 5% of their own money on oil commodities.
It is hard to take him seriously though. I mean I want to, but I keep thinking that he wrote the story about the 52 funniest things about the Pope's death. Not sure if I got that title correct, but that was the gist of it.-
So you're saying there should be regulation to prevent the high leveraging levels that caused prices to skyrocket?
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I suppose that it depends on how seriously one takes the Pope. o_0
www.blogcatalog.com/politics/discuss/entry/pope-condemns-modern-capitalism-... -
I never said I was against all regulations. That would be stupid. But I am not for the Government strangling the free market, either. There has to be balance.
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So you're saying we need more regulation to prevent that type of activity?
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What type of activity? The banks using two ways to evaluate investment capital? If that is what they did, then yes. I don't know enough about that to make an informed decision. But if one takes the author at face value that he, A. knows what he is talking about and B. is telling the truth. Then yes, for the sake of the discussion I would be in favor of regulations to avoid banks from doing that.
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AR, you're sounding unusually rational this evening. Are you experiencing a rare moment of clarity?
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See what happens when we actually talk?
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@Agit8r...how can someone take the Pope seriously? I mean he craps in the woods. Oh wait, maybe that was the answer to, "Is a bear Catholic?" Or was that, "What does the Pope do in the woods?"
*sigh* I am confused now. -
well those silly clothes make it pretty hard to.
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