The People vs. Goldman Sachs | Hacker News Reader

The People vs. Goldman Sachs

rollingstone.com

44 pointswinanga16 comments

Goldman Sachs is amazing. I follow articles about them since a few years and I must say, the ingenuity with which they act is inspiring, scary, terrifying...

Another evil master piece of them may have been the food market. http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/04/27/how_goldman...

The same dynamics behind the foot price bubble may cause the current surge in gas-prices http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2315894

Also the Author of the article (Taibbi) wrote a book about the bubble: http://www.amazon.com/Griftopia-Machines-Vampire-Breaking-Am...

All the information I have is obviously very biased towards blaming Goldman Sachs, yet if their involvement in the extreme price hikes in foot, oil, housing markets is only half as bad as it seems, they are the single biggest source for the worlds macroeconomic problems.

This is very disturbing to me, as I see myself as a strong advocate of the free market hypothesis. I guess if Goldman's involvement turned out to be as bad as I fear, it can be explained by them finding holes in the regulation where they were the only dominant player. They were able to act (as in the foot market) with no one challenging their doings. No regulation, no competition meaning they were able to game the system as they pleased.

Somehow I hope all this information about Goldman's involvement is correct, because it would give clear directions on how to fix the macroeconomic problems the world (not just America) faces. It would clearly show how to adjust the legal system, enforcement.

"This is very disturbing to me, as I see myself as a strong advocate of the free market hypothesis."

I always thought the free market hypothesis assumed the free and open flow of accurate information.

Goldman simply lied and conned billions out of their customers and the United States tax payers. They are a criminal enterprise whose ring leaders must be put behind bars if the rule of law means anything.

Free enterprise has nothing to do with it.

The point is that the "free flow of accurate information" is a fantasy and it seems that liars are rewarded by the market, increasingly so in markets with less regulation.

If "simply" lying is all it takes to steal billions (and not be punished for it), then the free market is stunningly ill equipped to deal with reality and is just a charade to allow a few wealthy people to rob the rest of society.

The legal system is supposed to deal with the "simply lying" part.

Ever notice how over the top SEC filings are in detailing every single thing that could possibly go wrong? That is because corporations can be sued for keeping information from their shareholders, and they want to play it safe.

So yes, a free market without a legal system to punish frauds and cons is stunningly ill equipped, indeed.

Is anyone else as shocked as I am that Goldman has barely had a slap on the wrist for this stuff?

Society, in general, doesn't "get" that white-collar crime like the mortgage securities fraud is the engine that powers blue collar crime.

The problem is that society in general spends far too much time and effort and money harassing blue collar criminals and keeping them locked up in a system that will never "fix" them. Society needs to make a conscious and concerted effort to prosecute white collar criminals -- to give them punishments severe enough to prevent the abuse and fraud from the top down, the abuse and fraud that leeches from the poorest "blue collars".

Raj Rajaratnam, the billionaire hedge fund manager and co-founder of Galleon Group who was convicted today "acted like the rules didn't apply to him". Probably because at this point in our history, society is starting to believe that the rules don't apply to the power suits. This is why none of these brokers have served jail / prison time.

Steal an automobile: go to jail; do not pass go. Steal somebody's house and life savings: go to swanky federal prison, stop and take a vacation in the Bahamas (where your tax shelter is) on the way.

Of course society gets this.

Ask any random sampling people on the street if they agree with your argument, the vast majority will say yes.

The only people who seem to strongly disagree are those in Obama's Department of "Justice".

White collar criminals run the system, so not too surprising.

Considering how far Goldman's tentacles reach into the federal government, I'm not surprised at all.

say what you will about Zero Hedge, but I find it to be an invaluable site. The comments are utter crap, and a lot of the stories are selectively chosen/biased in other ways, but the same is true of the Wall Street Journal and other mainstream news sources - I find it to be an extremely valuable counterpoint.

No, I am not surprised.

No and if you are legitimately shocked, then you don't understand to what extent the government is infiltrated with Goldman Sachs-men.

Goldman Sachs' Revolving Door: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-20001981-10391695.html

"A CBS News analysis of the revolving door between Goldman and government reveals at least four dozen former employees, lobbyists or advisers at the highest reaches of power both in Washington and around the world. [. . .] For example, former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is a former Goldman CEO; Arthur Levitt, the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission is a now a Goldman adviser; and former House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt is now a paid lobbyist for the firm. "

They then go on to list another 49 high ranking government persons who are Goldman Sachs-men.

Goldman Sachs is only one of the vile companies that have infiltrated the government and dominate all sorts of positions and committees to directly promote their own agendas (or, in some cases, bail their own companies out with trillion dollar plans after using the media to scare-monger the entire country about impending doom if we don't let the Goldman Sachs guys in the government give the Goldman Sachs guys in the company the bailout). There are plenty of other companies, too. Monsanto has a pretty heavy representation, but the list goes on and on. Just get googling and you'll spend days learning of all the unbelievable corruptions that we've been letting go on for decades. A fun one to look up is how corporate employees within the government have used their positions to fast-track things through the FDA for companies that theyw ere employees of (or became employees of as a reward, after they left the public position). Sometimes, even directly against the advice and complaint of the FDA's own scientists. Look up stuff like the rBGH, aspartame, round-up ready monsanto corn seeds, and manipulating data and fast-tracking FDA approvals for companies officials have been cozy with.

There are plenty of other examples that I'm probably not even aware of. These are just some of the most documented and commonly covered.

It's called regulatory capture.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture

Also note the closely related concept of intellectual capture, which is why nobody in the government or the media (except Taibbi and a handful of others) is pissed off about this.

Some will rob you with a six gun and some with a fountain pen.

And then there's these guys who convinced two presidents they were too large to fail.

Goldman Sachs didn't have to convince anyone of anything. They already ran the treasury and the SEC.

http://www.justice.gov/contact-us.html

Somewhat unrelated but the documentary 'Inside Job' provides a brilliant insight into the financial mess that unfolded in the past years.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1645089/

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