It really isn't much of a scandal at all, actually. It's a case of a well managed bank making money trading, which is the textbook definition of what a bank ought to be doing...
Right?
I mean if someone walks into a car dealership and buys a used car without checking out the engine or asking the dealership if anything was wrong with the engine, and then a week later the engine seizes up and stops working.....
Whose fault is it then? I think it's the lazy dunce who didn't ask the questions or do his homework on the car.
Now if the car dealer flat out lied and told the customer, "This car is like new. The engine is fine and will last a long time." Well that's different, that's fraud and is flat out wrong.
But that's not what Goldman was doing when it peddled these 'shitty' mortgage securities. They are way too smart to do something dumb like that, and they didn't.
The greedy, lazy investors who lapped up these shit deals like hotcakes deserve everything they got. And John Paulson--the billionaire hedge fund manager who actually did his homework and was on the other side of the trade deserves everything he got--which is billions of dollars.
Am I missing something?
7 comments:
wow - siding against your democratic leaders? i don't understand. I thought you didn't like capitalism?
Josh, I reject the simplistic labels increasingly tossed about in our countries seemingly never ending toxic, partisanship environment.
I am neither a 'capitalist' or a 'socialist. 'Pro war' or 'Anti war'. 'pro guns' or 'anti guns', etc.
Life is really more complicated than black and white, isn't it?
For example, I liked quite a bit of Ronald Reagan's pragmatism (please read previous blog post), and consider myself a complete, total fiscal conservative.
As such, I want to go after the reckless, wanton, and out of control spending that is rampant in our democracies biggest 'socialist entity'...that being the US Military.
Minor,
This is a very Republican view you are taking.
Truth
Truth,
How so? I think any tax payer with a functioning cranium would consider themselves a 'fiscal conservative'. Truth--do you agree the military is the biggest source of taxpayer waste and fraud in America?
Thanks, MR
As Jimmy Paige once wrote - or was it Robert Plant? - "It makes me wonder". I wonder what defect it is in the psychological makeup of a group of human beings that would have them putting the health and well being of millions of other human beings behind the private profit of a very few. Most of these lawmakers who live in the pockets of the Plutocracy call themselves "Christians". Have they ever made a serious study of the books? You know! - Matthew, Mark, Luke and John? - Those guys! How do they justify their actions? How do they sleep at night? We're talkin' major hypocrisy here! That's what makes them so much fun to watch! I always get a certain twisted delight in watching their fake piety. Imagine Wendy O. Williams being cast as Bernadette of Lourdes; or Marilyn Manson as Mahatma Gandhi. It's kind of the same thing.
Sooner or later our right wing friends, within the Congress and without, are going to be forced to admit that the era of anything goes deregulation was a really stupid idea. You can only sit calmly in a burning house, ignoring the flames all about you, for just so long. Sooner or later you'll be forced to flee for your life. After making your escape, if you still refuse to acknowledge that the house is indeed on fire, you're beyond the point where you can make rational decisions on your own. You've entered Librium Country, hombre!
http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com
Tom Degan
I think you would be hard pressed to throw yourself in the fiscal conservative camp, no? Maybe more right then left, but that's neither here nor there.
I happen to completely agree with you on the post - the nonsense of having to listen to Carl Levin rant to the CFO of GS, just to get his 'for the people, fk the financial institution' views on the record. It could be worthwhile for some of the senators who were so freely criticizing transactions, and activities that they have absolutely no understanding of, to actually do some research - more than quoting 'The Big Short' by Michael Lewis. Should GS have attempted to lose money and blow up their own bank ala Citi with massive RMBS and CDO risk? Clearly there can be more regulation and transparency around this grey market, but the people and institutions purchasing these CDOs, had the same information, just a different viewpoint than Paulson - who turned out to be right.
you're analogy is not all that far off.... but I don't agree with the banks that feel they are not too big to fail, then take tax payer money only to rebound 8 months later in the black.
when 6 of the worlds largest banks have control of 67% of USA's GDP, there's certainly a problem.
Nothing will happen with Goldman... Especially when Obama is hiring a friend to the bank to the Supreme court
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