Whoa! Long time no blog! Thanks to Red Bull - IT FUCKING GIVES YOU WINNNNNNNNGS - I'm ready to blog anew.
Reader "Anonymous" asks:
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Goldman-Sachs-wants-regulation_-not-laissez-faire-91639489.html
discuss
Yeah, I mean this article basically hits the nail on the head. Some kind of regulation of Wall St. is coming and Goldman Sachs wants to be on the right side of it. It's just like how huge health insurers were all "Yeah we want health care reform too mannnnn" and a year later we all now have to purchase health insurance. Cry me a fucking river for any other burden the health insurers might have to endure; do you know how many new customers that is?
Anyways, like the insurers, Goldman wants to make sure that whatever reform that is passed does very little damage, if any, to their bottom line. In fact, if Goldman lines up behind reform, it's brownie points for them and good PR, esp. after the coming Congressional hearings into their bullshit.
Financial regulatory reform, like health care reform, is probably in a state of "a little is better than nothing." If derivatives are cleaned up, that's a huge advance in the state of affairs. Even if they're only partially cleaned up, it's still probably better than nothing. But if you think the shadows hanging throughout Goldman's casino of doom are really going to be swept away by the sunlight at last, let's just take a look at a small list of fellers associated with Goldman in some way:
- Rahm Emmanuel, Chief of Staff to Prez O., once paid $35k by GS while working as a fundraiser for Bill Clinton.
- Greg Craig, now representing Goldman before the hearings, was Obama's first white house counsel.
- Trez Sec Timmy Geithner is a former Goldman lobbyist.
- Dick Gephardt, Tony Podesta, John Breaux, Santa Claus, the JLA, basically everyone is or was a Goldman lobbyist at some time, or is currently.
These people are the folks "shaping the debate" if you will. Expect a high level of bullshit in these upcoming hearings, a lot of phony outrage on camera with a lot of wink wink nudge nudge off-stage.
Goldman Sachs made a KILLING on the deals that went down when the financial system collapsed, which consisted of betting against their previous advice to their own clients and that the economy would tank. Goldman wants financial industry reform the same way that I want to be able to drink on the job every day for a year and then take two days off and when my Mom calls, be able to say, "Well I've been drinking a lot less..."
