New York Times Agrees With Us on Goldman Sachs

In the post I wrote last Wednesday, November 18th titled "Goldman Sachs Story Of The Day - I'm Sorry", I said much the same that The New York Times editorial did as reported by Reuters.

Reuters article "NY Times to Goldman Sachs: Pay u to cut public debt" had this to say:

A New York Times editorial slammed Goldman Sachs for its role in the financial crisis and said that instead of paying big bonuses to its employees it should make a multibillion-dollar gift to help reduce the U.S. national debt.

The editorial, published November 21, attacked Goldman for everything from its top executive's failure to apologize properly for his investment bank's part in creating the crisis as well as Goldman's awarding of bonuses related to profits that the paper said were boosted by a government bailout (emphasis added)

In my post I said, "We apologize", that's it?  This does not seem like a real heartfelt apology.".I just don't think Lord Blankfein gets it"....


The Times:

The Times sniffed at Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein's acknowledgment last week that his bank "participated in things that were clearly wrong," saying that he was not specific about what the company had done wrong and his remarks did not "come close to an apology."

In terms of the amount of money pledged to help small business, The Times said,

The paper described Goldman's pledge earlier this week of $500 million over five years to help small businesses as "crumbs from its table," saying it should do much more.

In a related comment, I said, "...and you offer up such a small amount in comparison, it does not seem genuine."  In a recent reply to another's comment I said, " their offer was a "mere pittance of a morsel" (not redundant)."

The Times:  "The money will be welcomed by recipients, but if Goldman wants to make a meaningful contribution, it would have to be in the billions (emphasis added) and aimed more directly at taxpayers," the Times said."

Larry's Post:  "What would have made a somewhat more believable statement would have been 10% of the estimated bonus pool - $3 billion 600 hundred million dollars ($3,600,000,000).  That would make a ripple at least.

Larry's Post:  "...somehow get a taxpayer bailout for AIG (also in the news today...see News Links below) from which they further enriched themselves at 100 cents on the dollar."

The Times:  In another story published in the Times on Saturday, Gretchen Morgenson quotes Janet Tavakoli, an expert in derivatives at consulting firm Tavakoli Structured Finance, who urged Goldman to repay money from the AIG bailout, saying Goldman should be forced to take back toxic collateralized debt obligations, or CDOs, which had been insured with AIG. (emphasis added)

No, I am not comparing myself to The New York Times, Reuters or Janet Tavakoli.  I am pointing out that we here at GoldmanSachs666 see through the GS BS as do those I quote here.

In recent days I have been contacted by several reporters doing stories on Goldman's image.  One reporter asked me, "what can they (GS) do to improve their image?"  I responded with "their image is not the problem, greed is their problem. Their (GS) greed overshadows and overpowers their (GS) ability to do right".

The issue is also not limiting salaries and executive pay or the destruction of Capitalism.  The issue is how do we go about treating companies and their executives when they enrich themselves with "lii gotten" profits.  Better said as profits derived from illegal activities, fraud, manipulation within the highest levels of our government (influence peddling).  In other words - words the major media do not want to use - it is an ongoing criminal enterprise and should be investigated under RICO. 

Our entire banking system has bilked trillions of dollars from everyone around the world.  It pales in comparison to what Madoff did - which I still don't believe he did without the help and support of Wall Street and some of our Government Agencies and Government officials.

This is and has been as organized a crime as organized crime ever was.  But let's not make allegations.  I believe there is enough reason and cause for our Attorney General to institute an investigation and let the American people know the findings.  Let's start with the phony AAA ratings from the three major raitng services whose word is "gospel" to investors.  Why did they do it?  Who asked them to do it?  How much did they get paid to do it? 

But then again, perhaps the "power" of GS is so strong and its' influence with our Treasury Secretary, former Treasury Secretary, the previous Treasury Secretaries who advise our President so great that this will never happen. 

Goldman Sachs is being called out by everyone.  The people, the press and politicians.  We can't all be wrong, can we?

Read the full article in Reuters...click here