tagged w/ Goldman Sachs
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“Lapse” is a harrowing short film by the Australian filmmaker Scott Alexander. The film transports viewers to the darkly sinister world of after-hours at a large, high-security inpatient psychiatric institution. An on-call agency cleaning lady accidentally loses her identification card and then becomes lost in the hospital’s labyrinth of gloomy hallways. Her plight goes from bad to tragic, as the film becomes a heart-rending exploration of the loss of personal identity, as well as the debilitating demise of control with which we are all confronted when unable to communicate with or to others.
The film stands as a chilling metaphor for the devastating contemporary plight of ever-growing numbers of people who have been rendered invisible by unbearable poverty, the suffering of chronic illnesses, excessively complicated political bureaucracies, and the vast powers of hugely wealthy financial institutions that use their forces to strangle both the poor and common working persons.
“Lapse” confronts the viewer with deeply agonizing images and issues, which undoubtedly will make you want to look away. But please don’t.
This piece includes a number of color photographs, as well as the decisively urgent short film, “Lapse.”
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2010/07/05/lapse-a-chilling-metaphor-for-worlds-of-invisible-people/“Lapse” is a harrowing short film by the Australian filmmaker Scott... more
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Bait and Switch TV Live Debates - Connecting TV audiences directly to experts, policymakers, and celebrities on issues that affect us all.Bait and Switch TV Live Debates - Connecting TV audiences directly to experts,... more
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Firms hired 2.7 former government staffers for every member of Congress -- in one year
Want to know why Congress tends to tread lightly when it comes to regulating major US banks and financial services firms?
Perhaps you need look no further than the number of lobbyists the financial services industry employs. According to a report released Thursday by Public Citizen and the Center for Responsive Politics, the financial industry hired 1,447 former federal employees to lobby on its behalf in 2009 alone.
Seventy-three of those are former members of Congress. According to the report, this means that there is one former member of Congress for every eight current members of Congress working for money management firms.
"This small army of registered financial services sector lobbyists includes at least 73 former members of Congress, of whom 17 served on the banking committees of either the U.S. House of Representatives or the Senate," Public Citizen said in their release. "At least 66 industry lobbyists worked for these committees as staffers, while 82 additional lobbyists once worked for congressional members who currently serve on these key committees."
more at link...
Those two bronze figures to the right and left of the American flag are called "Fasci." Its the universal symbol of fascism going back even before Roman times.
Why is it in our halls of Congress?
Do some research.Firms hired 2.7 former government staffers for every member of Congress -- in one year... more
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Listening to members of the Senate subcommittee on investigations interrogate Goldman Sachs executives, I couldn't help but think, "chicken." And then, "where's the beef?"
Not because the executives parried, ducked, and even drew out their syllables (much to Sen. Susan Collins's frustration) during their ten-hour grilling. But because the white shoe investment bank and securities firm has, in recent years, entered the messy world of global agribusiness.
That's right: Goldman Sachs is in the business of factory farming. Perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised: in the late 18th century, the area around Wall Street housed slaughterhouses and tanneries. The word capitalism itself is rooted in the trade of (live)stock measured by head (Latin: capita) of cattle. Nonetheless, the parallels between the killings made on Wall Street then and now are not only eerie, but consequential. Just as the securitized debt deals Goldman was hawking may be, in Warren Buffett's words, "financial weapons of mass destruction," putting the whole economic system at risk of collapse, factory farming carries a parallel risk -- of environmental destruction and exploitation of resources, prospects for food security, and animals, all on a mass scale.
Unfortunately, the Senate inquiry into Goldman's alleged malfeasance is unlikely to question why the company in 2008 decided to acquire ten intensive poultry farms in China's Hunan and Fujian provinces for $300 million. While Goldman isn't running the farms itself (that's outsourced) it retains control over the prices. "So for the record, that's: U.S. mortgages = bad . . . Asian livestock = good," is how the website Business Insider described the deal.
This isn't the firm's first foray into this arena. Goldman is also principal owner of Burger King, joining Bain and Texas Pacific in 2002 in a $2.26 billion takeover of the fast food giant. Labor activists have criticized Goldman for the poverty wages earned by full-time Burger King workers, even as the firm continues to pay out billions in bonuses, including during the great recession.
China Syndrome
In China, Goldman may well be producing chicken for its own restaurants, since Burger King has 25 Chinese outlets. In recent decades, both fast food and U.S.-style factory farms that house thousands of animals in tiny cages or stalls in indoor sheds have become increasingly common in China. But such facilities, like the ones Goldman now owns, forfeit any semblance of animal welfare and have immense environmental and social costs.
Why would Goldman want to own factory farms? Obviously, it sees an opportunity to make money, no matter the consequences. Meat consumption in China is rising rapidly; since 1980, it's quadrupled. Tyson, Smithfield, and other leading "protein producers" are active in the country, seeking new sources of profit by putting the proverbial chicken in 1.3 billion Chinese pots. Goldman must have wanted a piece of that pot, too.
Goldman's poultry purchase could be labeled with the epithet Sen. Carl Levin used repeatedly at the hearings riffing on a Goldman employee's email description of one of the firm's securities schemes (a "shitty deal").
Filthy Lucre
According to Wu Weixiang, an associate professor at China's Zhejiang University's Agriculture College, "Domestic animal and poultry waste has become a major source of environmental pollution." Indeed, China's billions of farmed animals produce an estimated 2.7 billion tons of manure a year--three-and-a-half times industrial solid waste levels--and runoff from livestock facilities has led to a significant "dead zone" in the South China Sea, akin to that in the Gulf of Mexico, which is also the result of agriculture.
The poultry deal also contradicts a Goldman business principle. "Our responsibility for environmental stewardship does not fluctuate with changing economic conditions," the firm's 2008 Environmental Report states. "We hope our work continues to inspire action and creative market-based solutions that can help our environment endure and thrive.
Only three percent of China's large and medium-sized livestock operations have facilities to treat animal wastes, according to Xu Cheng, a professor at China Agricultural University. Do Goldman's?
Just a year and a half ago, Goldman was kept afloat by billions of dollars in U.S. government funds. Does that mean U.S. taxpayer dollars subsidized cruel, polluting, climate-heating factory farms in China? Even if the connection isn't direct, what are we to make of an elite private equity firm like Goldman helping expand industrial-scale animal facilities?
cont.Listening to members of the Senate subcommittee on investigations interrogate Goldman... more
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Former President Bill Clinton says it is "time to lower the rhetoric and talk about the facts," in reference to the government's scrutiny of Wall Street.
In an exclusive interview with Maria Bartiromo, Clinton noted that while many financial firms are being questioned by the Securities and Exchange Commission, he does not believe that Goldman Sachs or CEO Lloyd Blankfein did anything illegal, based on what he's seeing.
The SEC has been probing the mortgage operations of major banks, but so far has only charged Goldman with civil fraud. The firm has said it will fight the charges and has vigorously denied any wrongdoing.
Clinton says "what we ought to do is have an honest conversation about what really happened, how to fix it, and how to get what's best about vital capital markets."
more at link...
An "honest conversation about what really happened" just came out of the mouth of Bill Clinton, a guy who made his career by being the best liar in the business. I guess Ponzi schemes and financial terrorism is standard practice. How about raping and pillaging? Obviously treason is legal; how else are all the same cast of Benedict Arnolds still walking around, making billions by stealing our money.
It was under Bill Clinton in 1999 when his cronies, Larry Summers, Alan Greenspan, Robert Rubin repealed the Glass-Steagall Act, which is the most important Post-Depression safeguard and protector of the citizen's cash. From that point forward, the floodgates were opened for the banking oligarchs to further bankrupt this nation.
Who's running the Obama white house from behind the scenes? Rahm Emanuel and Larry Summers with his puppet, little Timmy Geithner. Even Elena Kagan, Supreme Court nominee, worked for Goldman Sachs as a top adviser, where she gave "expert advice to clients." Also, she was at Harvard with Larry Summers. Are you kidding me?
End the Fed...its a private, banking cartel that is purposefully tanking our currency b/c its leaders want a New World Order and a corporate-fascist dictatorship across the globe. Bill Clinton and everyone else in Washington works for Goldman Sachs b/c they have a monopoly on the issuance of currency via the mafioso institution known as the Federal Reserve.Former President Bill Clinton says it is "time to lower the rhetoric and talk... more
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Everyone knows the casino always wins. It’s a mathematical certainty. Goldman Sachs (GS) made money on their trading desks every single day last quarter. So, is Goldman Sachs the “house” for global markets?
Yesterday, Zero Hedge eloquently noted that this is “Unfuckingbelievable.” It is. Goldman’s achievement is as rare as a major league baseball player batting 1000%. Unless the game is rigged, it’s statistically impossible. Zero Hedge adds:
If you ever wanted to see what monopoly looks like in chart form, here it is:
http://wallstcheatsheet.com/breaking-news/is-goldman-sachs-trading-desk-a-statistical-casino/?p=11115/Everyone knows the casino always wins. It’s a mathematical certainty. Goldman... more
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Just days before the president is expected to announce his choice for the Supreme Court, the perceived front-runner for that post is being plagued by a story that actually broke in March 2009.
On Friday, a slew of inquiries was made to the White House and Justice Department about a minor post Solicitor General Elena Kagan once held at Goldman Sachs, the investment bank under fire over controversial mortgage securities transactions. Kagan served on a Goldman advisory council between 2005 and 2008, with the task of providing expert "analysis and advice to Goldman Sachs and its clients." For her work she earned a $10,000 stipend.
This was actually old news. Kagan disclosed this information during her first confirmation hearings for the post of Solicitor General. On March 24, 2009, the New York Times mentioned the position and payment in an article on whether White House employees should be allowed to keep the bonuses they earned from their time in private industry.
In mid-April 2010, Goldman was charged by the SEC with fraud in its dealing with the subprime mortgage market and immediately became a toxic name within the political world. With Kagan ascending to the short list of potential Supreme Court nominees shortly thereafter, USA Today revisited the matter on April 27 -- albeit in a much different context than the Times.
Since then, however, the issue has remained largely on the back burner. That is until Friday, when White House spokesman Robert Gibbs was asked about the Goldman connection during a briefing with reporters. Gibbs stressed that the panel "had absolutely nothing to do with decisions Goldman is being investigated for" and stressed that her position with the bank would have "no" impact on her potential nomination.
The Justice Department, likewise, downplayed the findings in statements issued to inquiring reporters. "This advisory group was comprised of leaders from various sectors including academia, the media, business, and other industry," said spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler. "They met once a year for a daylong conference organized around public policy matters. The group was not involved in making any investment decisions for the company."
But concern nevertheless mounted in the progressive community (already skittish on Kagan's credentials) that the connection could be used to harm her during confirmation hearings -- should she be nominated.Just days before the president is expected to announce his choice for the Supreme... more
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Several thousand demonstrators marched through the New York financial district this past week in a protest led by labor unions. They said Wall Street's biggest banks must account for record profits while average Americans still suffer financially.Several thousand demonstrators marched through the New York financial district this... more
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There is growing evidence that fraud was at the heart of the current financial crisis. But so far, no high-level bank executives have been hauled off to jail. One of the reasons may be that key bank regulators, who are counted on to root out fraud from the companies they regulate, have largely left it to the banks to report suspicious activity themselves. In this story one veteran bank regulator and a fed-up Senator try to answer the question many have pondered since the beginning of the crisis: why haven't more bank bosses been held responsible for this mess?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR-8uVu4lPIThere is growing evidence that fraud was at the heart of the current financial crisis.... more
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By Grant Lawrence
Bodhi Thunder
Goldman evidently is fantastic at betting on disasters. As most everybody knows, Goldman Sucks sold clients bets that the housing market would boom while they themselves bet against the housing market.
The result–Their bet paid off big time. They got the gold and America got the shaft.
Now the joke is that they bet against the Gulf of Mexico and oil rigs.
“One oil rig goes down and we’re going to be rolling in dough,” Mr. Tourre wrote in one email. “Suck it, fishies and birdies!”
Maybe the are betting against nuke plants right now. Oops, watch out for another 3 Mile Island.
Perhaps Goldman is also setting up bets on the survival of humanity. I am sure they are smart betters and are betting against our survival. The coming collapse of the eco-system and the massive die off should give them a big payoff. But even if they lose the bet, the American taxpayer will be there with a help up of several trillions.
Banksters don’t get handouts, they get a help up.
But you know that.
They are not like those unemployed food stamp, welfare bums trying to survive on nothing. Banksters are doing ‘God’s Work’ as the Jackass Goldman CEO Lloyd ‘Blankmind’ once said. Goldman’s CEO also goes by Darth Vader or the Prince of Darkness.
I guess God is into destroying America, wrecking the world’s economy, and making narcissist, psychopaths super rich.By Grant Lawrence
Bodhi Thunder
Goldman evidently is fantastic at betting on... more
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The Securities and Exchange Commission filed securities fraud charges against Goldman, Sachs & Co. ("GS&Co") and a GS&Co employee, Fabrice Tourre ("Tourre"), for making material misstatements and omissions in connection with a synthetic collateralized debt obligation ("CDO") GS&Co structured and marketed to investors.The Securities and Exchange Commission filed securities fraud charges against Goldman,... more
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If there is a universal political sentiment in this country it's that there are far too many lobbyists. Some might quibble (primarily politicians and the lobbyists themselves) that lobbyists are a good thing. However, most everyone else sees them as carbuncles on the ass of society.If there is a universal political sentiment in this country it's that there are... more
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The US justice department has reportedly opened an investigation into the investment bank Goldman Sachs over mortgage deals it allegedly finalised with knowledge of their high risk. The criminal investigation was begun in New York on Thursday raising the prospect of the firm or some of its employees being charged, the Wall Street Journal newspaper reported.
The investigation follows the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing civil fraud charges against Goldman and one of its traders two weeks ago.
"Given the recent focus on the firm, we are not surprised by the report of an inquiry," a spokesman from Goldman said.
"We would fully co-operate with any requests for information."
The justice department's investigation reportedly stems from a referral from the SEC.
Information about mortgage-related securities was said by the SEC to have been hidden by the bank in transactions in 2006 and 2007.
'Investors misled'
The SEC said that the firm misled investors by not telling them that the securities had been selected by Paulson and Co, a Goldman hedge fund client, who was betting that the investments would fail.
Goldman and Fabrice Tourre, the trader said to be involved, deny the charges and have said that they will contest them in court.
Lloyd Blackfein, the CEO, and other Goldman employees were also questioned by a US senate subcommittee in Washington DC over trading the mortgage-related products when the US housing market broke down in 2007.
Congress is attempting to provide legislation to clean up and regulate the financial industry, after widespread criticism over banks' role in the global economic crisis.
The panel accused Goldman of inflating the housing bubble in the past ten years and then profiting from its collapse in 2007, highlighting the alleged incidents that surrounding complex mortgage deals that brought the SEC charges.
It also said the Wall Street giant helped to package toxic mortgages into bonds for fees from 2004 to 2007, and then repackaged those bonds into complex securities known as collateralised debt obligations, magnifying the risk from the mortgages.The US justice department has reportedly opened an investigation into the investment... more
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The Goldman Sachs (GS) hearing was frustrating because at times the Senators tripped over their questions and got nowhere when really, the Senators could have “won” the debate.
It’s our thinking that Goldman shouldn’t have been questioned so intensely about say, their taking $2.5 billion of AIG’s bailout dollars or how Sparks “got comfortable” with trading positions. Language like getting “comfortable” is vague and confusing.
What Sparks did is precise and sketchy: A client asked him, what’s Goldman’s position on this trade? Sparks answered: We’re long. Really though, they were also short.
Assuming there were no parameters around what they could and could not ask…
http://wallstcheatsheet.com/breaking-news/10-burning-questions-the-senators-should-have-asked-goldman-sachs/?p=10340/The Goldman Sachs (GS) hearing was frustrating because at times the Senators tripped... more
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At last the voters' voices are being heard. Kudos to our elected officials, whose quotation of expletives at least begins to reflect the anger of Americans.
If you caught any of the testimony from the Goldman Sachs hearings, it should be obvious that Wall Street is picking nits with what is Law, versus what is RIGHT. Any criticism directed at members of the subcommittee for use of foul language is laughable. I think most of us would have used far worse language having to face these immoral greedy jackasses.
There shouldn't have to be a law when basic trust issues are the subject. Where is the sense of right for these so-called business people? Senator McCain nailed it when he said that the financial meltdown has hurt and continues to hurt so many Americans, while Goldman Sachs seemed to have done quite well.
Thank-you Senator McCain.At last the voters' voices are being heard. Kudos to our elected officials,... more
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The masters of the universe were forced down to earth on Tuesday.
Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein, the head of the most powerful investment bank in the world, faced a blistering cross-examination from U.S. lawmakers about the company's ethics and behavior toward its clients.
Blankfein, who said late last year he was "doing God's work," was asked time and time again whether he felt it was morally correct for the bank to sell its clients securities while at the same time the firm was betting against them.
In an interrogation by Senator Carl Levin, Blankfein was constantly interrupted, told to answer the question and stick to the point. He often squinted as if puzzled by the questions.
"You're going short against the very security (you're selling) ... many of which are described as crap by your own sales force internally." said Levin, chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
"How do you expect to deserve the trust of your clients, and is there not an inherent conflict here?"
Blankfein was the last in a parade of Goldman Sachs Group Inc current and former executives who tried to fend off accusations they helping inflate the housing bubble and then made billions off the market's collapse.
Sworn in over seven hours after the hearing started, Blankfein said, as a market maker, it was not Goldman's responsibility to tell customers how to trade or invest.
Clients "are not coming to us to represent what our views are, they probably wouldn't care what our views are. They shouldn't care," he said.
The hearing comes less than two weeks after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil fraud suit against Goldman, charging that it hid vital information from investors about a mortgage-related security.
more @ link
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63Q35320100427The masters of the universe were forced down to earth on Tuesday.
Goldman Sachs... more
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Sen. Blanche Lincoln, under fire for keeping a $4,500 contribution from Goldman Sachs’s political action committee, has canceled a fundraising lunch with Goldman executives that was scheduled for Monday and would have netted many times that amount for the Arkansas senator’s reelection campaign.
The cancelled fundraiser, which was to have been held at Goldman’s Lower Manhattan headquarters, is emblematic of the investment bank’s swift fall from well-connected fundraising powerhouse to political pariah – a fate sealed Friday when the Securities and Exchange Commission charged the firm with defrauding investors.
“In light of the S.E.C. lawsuit against Goldman Sachs, Sen. Lincoln will schedule no future campaign-related events with the firm and will accept no further contributions from the firm's political action committee or its employees,” Lincoln’s campaign spokeswoman Katie Laning Niebaum said in a statement to POLITICO.
READ MORE AT LINKSen. Blanche Lincoln, under fire for keeping a $4,500 contribution from Goldman... more
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