GoldmanSachs666 Message Board

Fraud*
According to the Collins English Dictionary 10th Edition fraud can be defined as: "deceit, trickery, sharp practice, or breach of confidence, perpetrated for profit or to gain some unfair or dishonest advantage".[1] In the broadest sense, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation. Defrauding people or entities of money or valuables is a common purpose of fraud, but there have also been fraudulent "discoveries", e.g. in science, to gain prestige rather than immediate monetary gain
*As defined in Wikipedia

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Goldman Sachs: A NYT Editorial On Apologies {Update 1}

Editor's Note: This update reflects the comments made by another of our editor's. His comment is very interesting and should be read by all. I therefore offer RoberM's comments at the end of this post.

The New York Times recently ran an editorial opinion, "Are They Really?". Are they really sorry for their admitted actions or are they merely PR statements with no real substance, feeling or beliefs? there are two apologies mentioned in this editorial. The first, is of course, the one by Goldman Sachs CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, wherein he apologized for doing things that were responsible for causing this worldwide economic crisis. This apology - says the editorial -
"...came less than two weeks after he infuriated pretty much everyone else by declaring that Goldman was “doing God’s work.”
The editorial then talks about how former Times Warner CEO, Gerald Levin, now head of Bank of America owned up to "making the worst deal of the century" when he acquired AOL. He is quoted as saying,
“I presided over the worst deal of the century, apparently,” Mr. Levin said. “I guess it’s time for those who are involved in companies to stand up and say: You know what, I’m solely responsible for it.”
Great! He is solely responsible for the "worst deal of the century" but has been hired to run what could become "the worst bank of the century" where he can again make multi million dollar salaries and awards of millions in bonuses. A reward for a terrible error in management.

Here is the lesson to our children. You can make disastrous errors, cause much harm and unjustly enrich yourself and you will be rewarded for this terrible behavior. You can lie, cheat and steal - be you in government or in business - and the rewards will be showered upon you. (I must add a note here. If in business you must be in a business that is considered to be "too big to fail". If you are a small business you will likely be prosecuted and punished. There is as two tier system at work in this country)

The NYT editorial goes on to say;
Wall Street has a lot to apologize for, but contrition would be more convincing if it came with accountability: a resignation or a decision to forswear bonuses and certainly a pledge to stop trying to block desperately needed financial reforms.
Resignations? Why in the world would someone who admits fatal error and gets highly rewarded want to consider resignation? Would resigning let them sleep better in their lavish mansions? I don't think so. Lloyd Blankfein, I would think, sleeps very well at night counting his dollars instead of sheep. Mr. Levin of BofA sleeps better having admitted his fatal error and taken a large(?) load of his chest. Timothy Geithner sleeps well at night knowing he is all powerful with the ability to hide wrongful actions and award billions to cohorts. Henry Paulson, Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke all sleep well without the aid of a "sleep number" bed.

But the real issue here is accountability. Who is accountable to who. No one seems to know or even care. This lack of care is where our problem really is.

Goldman Sachs and Mr. Blankfein should be held accountable by the whole world for their actions, yet the world let's them continue unchallenged. It is difficult to challenge such behemoths as Goldman Sachs because they have the "full faith and protection" of the United States Government behind them. This being the case, then who is the U.S. Government accountable to? A simple question with a very Constitutional answer - the people - of course. But the people live in fear and are kept still by those that are responsible to them eliminating the accountability and the Constitution.

The world can exist - contrary to the belief of some - without the likes of Goldman Sachs, AIG, JPMorgan and others. They do not possess the greatest talent and knowledge the world or specifically this country has to offer. In deed, there are many who could fill their void better. Wall Street has other firms, Main Street has other banks that would fill the voids left. Our children need to learn that admission of guilt and wrongdoing - in general - is wrong and has far reaching consequences.


To reiterate the theme our founder Mike Morgan always used; Wake Up America. Yes, wake up before it is too late. We are witnessing the creation of a new empire - the United Corporations of America (UCA) where your rights are determined by the number of dollars you own. Our children and their children deserve more then what we are leaving them.

We must also teach that apologies are more then just PR statements.

Read the entire NYT Editorial Opinion...click here

RobertM comment:
Bear with me...this is gonna be a long one but it's worth it. I was reading an article at naked capitalism:The military-industrial complex is ruining the economy Here's a piece of it-Everyone knows that the too big to fails and their dishonest and footsy-playing regulators and politicians are largely responsible for trashing the economy.But the military-industrial complex shares much of the blame.Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz says that the Iraq war will cost $3-5 trillion dollars.......All of the spending on unnecessary wars adds up. The U.S. is adding trillions to its debt burden to finance its multiple wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, etc.Two top American economists – Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff – show that the more indebted a country is, with a government debt/GDP ratio of 0.9, and external debt/GDP of 0.6 being critical thresholds, the more GDP growth drops materially.Specifically, Reinhart and Rogoff write:The relationship between government debt and real GDP growth is weak for debt/GDP ratios below a threshold of 90 percent of GDP. Above 90 percent, median growth rates fall by one percent, and average growth falls considerably more. We find that the threshold for public debt is similar in advanced and emerging economies…Indeed, it should be obvious to anyone who looks at the issue that deficits do matter.A PhD economist told me:War always causes recession. Well, if it is a very short war, then it may stimulate the economy in the short-run. But if there is not a quick victory and it drags on, then wars always put the nation waging war into a recession and hurt its economy.You know about America’s unemployment problem. You may have even heard that the U.S. may very well have suffered a permanent destruction of jobs.But did you know that the defense employment sector is booming?.....It's a must read article as are some of the comments. I started to do some research on the connections between Goldman and the military/industrial complex and came across this comment on another site from someone who appears to be with www.kickthemallout.com....continued on next post
January 11, 2010 10:54 AM
Delete
Blogger RobertM said...
Here it is in it's entirety and I think it is fairly spot on.Let the system work as it was intended:http://www.kickthemallout.com/We have allowed a relatively small group of people to seize the powers of government for their own selfish purposes. Our elected representatives have turned over our government and it's coercive powers to private transnational corporate interests that have absolutely no allegiance to this country. In fact, they are systematically destroying our nation to achieve their global agenda. Through their control of our government they have been able to impose their will on all of us. This control of government also extends to the take over the monetary system, the media, health care, agriculture, education, and the military, virtually everything at this point.They have also taken control of all governmental agencies and bureaucracies as well. They have placed their own people in all the highest agency positions. There has been a revolving door between government positions and corporate positions for a very long time. (Example: Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is former CEO of Goldman Sachs for crying out loud!) Our government is literally not our government any more. It is the private enforcement arm for those that own the most powerful corporations. Whatever the corporations want, the government makes legal and enforces through laws, regulations, taxation and threat of jail time, something corporations could not do on their own.In order to stop these people, we must understand how they accomplished the hostile takeover of our government in the beginning. First, they took control of Congress by making it legal for their corporations to interfere. They accomplished this by planting a loophole in the Constitution. Then the loophole was exploited to award "human rights protections" for artificial corporate entities, which gave corporations the right to directly interfere with government and elections.Once they had control of Congress, they took over the monetary system by getting the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 passed into law, setting up their central banking scam. Most Americans have no idea that the Federal Reserve is not a government agency. It is, in fact, a private corporation that it's totally controlled by the private bankers.So, once they had control of Congress, they had the power to create every law and regulation they needed to make all their crimes legal. And, once they controlled our currency they literally had the power to do anything they wanted. The bottom line is, the wealthiest people on the planet, who literally think they have some divine right to rule over us, have stolen the coercive powers of government to impose their selfish will on all of us and literally gave themselves the power to create "unlimited wealth" out of thin air, on top of it.The Bankers are the only people on the planet that are legally allowed to say they have money they don't really have. Through the fractional reserve banking scam they cooked up, all they are required to have on deposit is 10% or less of actual cash they lend. For example, all they need is $20,000 or less on deposit to be able to write you a check for $200,000 for your mortgage. How long would you stay out of jail if you did that? What is even worse, if you don't pay back the money they never had to begin with, they take your house. The bankers get all the "real cash" you've paid for years on your mortgage, AND they get your house if you suddenly can't pay. You lose everything. They get it all. The scale on which this is happening every single day is almost incomprehensible. The bankers are "legally" allowed to create TRILLIONS of dollars out of thin air and lend it out at interest with nothing more than a flick of a pen. Slick huh?....continued on next post
January 11, 2010 10:57 AM
Delete
Blogger RobertM said...
This is massive, institutionalized fraud and it is the primary source of power for this group of unelected individuals that have taken control of our government and aspire to rule over all of us without that troubling thing called accountability to the citizens. If we eliminate their ability to create unlimited wealth, we take away their primary source of power, just like that!So, our plan is to do the exact same thing that the S.O.B.'s ruining our nation did, and, in the exact same order. First, we take back control of our Congress. We do this by imposing our undeniable will on Congress in the upcoming election by Kicking Them All Out! We FIRE them! Then we simply demand that the new Freshman Congress permanently revoke human rights protections for corporations. Once we do that, we make it illegal for corporations to interfere in government and then we can legally kick out the bulk of the lobbyists. Then we won't have corporate wealth and power standing in the way when we take the next crucial step, shutting down the FED. This will effectively dry up the private banker's ability to create unlimited wealth and their ability to control the entire economy through the power to issue currency and credit. Then we end the fraud of Fractional Reserve Banking, which has allowed bankers to literally counterfeit unlimited amounts of money and lend it out at interest.We must return the authority over our currency and monetary policy to the Congress where it is supposed to be and where there will be accountability to the People. Right now, the Fed, the private bankers, are totally unaccountable to anyone or anything. Then, and only, then will we be able to clean up the government and the mess these criminals have deliberately created. If we do these few, specific things we can land a lethal blow to the criminals currently in control of our nation and finally hold them accountable for their crimes against humanity.The simple truth is, we only have one direct power over our government, the power to hire and fire. Until the powers of our votes are FELT, we have no power. Those in control of our political system con us into believing the whole point of elections is to determine which party will control Congress, which effectively splits the power of our votes right down the middle. So our power to effect change is virtually eliminated by this one simple con job.For our votes to have the power necessary to "really" take back control of Congress, we must unite our votes and cast them in a way that will be FELT! We have to set aside the superficial, partisan differences and vote to accomplish something far more important than which party controls congress. We cast our votes against ALL INCUMBENTS in order to clean house and let it be known business as usual is over and politics is no longer a path to personal wealth and power.Then we must demand the new Congress ratify the amendment to the Constitution necessary to revoke human rights protections for corporations, making it illegal for corporations and their lobbyists to interfere in government or elections, on every level, local, state and federal. The Amendment to revoke human rights protections can be found on the KTAO Project web site in the "Simple Two Step Plan" posted there. Once we close that loophole, we can legally kick out all the corporate lobbyists.
January 11, 2010 10:59 AM

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4 COMMENTS:

RobertM said...

Bear with me...this is gonna be a long one but it's worth it. I was reading an article at naked capitalism:
The military-industrial complex is ruining the economy Here's a piece of it-
Everyone knows that the too big to fails and their dishonest and footsy-playing regulators and politicians are largely responsible for trashing the economy.But the military-industrial complex shares much of the blame.Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz says that the Iraq war will cost $3-5 trillion dollars.
......
All of the spending on unnecessary wars adds up. The U.S. is adding trillions to its debt burden to finance its multiple wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, etc.

Two top American economists – Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff – show that the more indebted a country is, with a government debt/GDP ratio of 0.9, and external debt/GDP of 0.6 being critical thresholds, the more GDP growth drops materially.
Specifically, Reinhart and Rogoff write:
The relationship between government debt and real GDP growth is weak for debt/GDP ratios below a threshold of 90 percent of GDP. Above 90 percent, median growth rates fall by one percent, and average growth falls considerably more. We find that the threshold for public debt is similar in advanced and emerging economies…
Indeed, it should be obvious to anyone who looks at the issue that deficits do matter.
A PhD economist told me:
War always causes recession. Well, if it is a very short war, then it may stimulate the economy in the short-run. But if there is not a quick victory and it drags on, then wars always put the nation waging war into a recession and hurt its economy.

You know about America’s unemployment problem. You may have even heard that the U.S. may very well have suffered a permanent destruction of jobs.But did you know that the defense employment sector is booming?
.....


It's a must read article as are some of the comments. I started to do some research on the connections between Goldman and the military/industrial complex and came across this comment on another site from someone who appears to be with www.kickthemallout.com

....continued on next post

RobertM said...

Here it is in it's entirety and I think it is fairly spot on.
Let the system work as it was intended:

http://www.kickthemallout.com/

We have allowed a relatively small group of people to seize the powers of government for their own selfish purposes. Our elected representatives have turned over our government and it's coercive powers to private transnational corporate interests that have absolutely no allegiance to this country. In fact, they are systematically destroying our nation to achieve their global agenda. Through their control of our government they have been able to impose their will on all of us. This control of government also extends to the take over the monetary system, the media, health care, agriculture, education, and the military, virtually everything at this point.


They have also taken control of all governmental agencies and bureaucracies as well. They have placed their own people in all the highest agency positions. There has been a revolving door between government positions and corporate positions for a very long time. (Example: Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is former CEO of Goldman Sachs for crying out loud!) Our government is literally not our government any more. It is the private enforcement arm for those that own the most powerful corporations. Whatever the corporations want, the government makes legal and enforces through laws, regulations, taxation and threat of jail time, something corporations could not do on their own.

In order to stop these people, we must understand how they accomplished the hostile takeover of our government in the beginning. First, they took control of Congress by making it legal for their corporations to interfere. They accomplished this by planting a loophole in the Constitution. Then the loophole was exploited to award "human rights protections" for artificial corporate entities, which gave corporations the right to directly interfere with government and elections.

Once they had control of Congress, they took over the monetary system by getting the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 passed into law, setting up their central banking scam. Most Americans have no idea that the Federal Reserve is not a government agency. It is, in fact, a private corporation that it's totally controlled by the private bankers.

So, once they had control of Congress, they had the power to create every law and regulation they needed to make all their crimes legal. And, once they controlled our currency they literally had the power to do anything they wanted. The bottom line is, the wealthiest people on the planet, who literally think they have some divine right to rule over us, have stolen the coercive powers of government to impose their selfish will on all of us and literally gave themselves the power to create "unlimited wealth" out of thin air, on top of it.

The Bankers are the only people on the planet that are legally allowed to say they have money they don't really have. Through the fractional reserve banking scam they cooked up, all they are required to have on deposit is 10% or less of actual cash they lend. For example, all they need is $20,000 or less on deposit to be able to write you a check for $200,000 for your mortgage. How long would you stay out of jail if you did that? What is even worse, if you don't pay back the money they never had to begin with, they take your house. The bankers get all the "real cash" you've paid for years on your mortgage, AND they get your house if you suddenly can't pay. You lose everything. They get it all. The scale on which this is happening every single day is almost incomprehensible. The bankers are "legally" allowed to create TRILLIONS of dollars out of thin air and lend it out at interest with nothing more than a flick of a pen. Slick huh?

....continued on next post

RobertM said...

This is massive, institutionalized fraud and it is the primary source of power for this group of unelected individuals that have taken control of our government and aspire to rule over all of us without that troubling thing called accountability to the citizens. If we eliminate their ability to create unlimited wealth, we take away their primary source of power, just like that!

So, our plan is to do the exact same thing that the S.O.B.'s ruining our nation did, and, in the exact same order. First, we take back control of our Congress. We do this by imposing our undeniable will on Congress in the upcoming election by Kicking Them All Out! We FIRE them! Then we simply demand that the new Freshman Congress permanently revoke human rights protections for corporations. Once we do that, we make it illegal for corporations to interfere in government and then we can legally kick out the bulk of the lobbyists. Then we won't have corporate wealth and power standing in the way when we take the next crucial step, shutting down the FED. This will effectively dry up the private banker's ability to create unlimited wealth and their ability to control the entire economy through the power to issue currency and credit. Then we end the fraud of Fractional Reserve Banking, which has allowed bankers to literally counterfeit unlimited amounts of money and lend it out at interest.

We must return the authority over our currency and monetary policy to the Congress where it is supposed to be and where there will be accountability to the People. Right now, the Fed, the private bankers, are totally unaccountable to anyone or anything. Then, and only, then will we be able to clean up the government and the mess these criminals have deliberately created. If we do these few, specific things we can land a lethal blow to the criminals currently in control of our nation and finally hold them accountable for their crimes against humanity.

The simple truth is, we only have one direct power over our government, the power to hire and fire. Until the powers of our votes are FELT, we have no power. Those in control of our political system con us into believing the whole point of elections is to determine which party will control Congress, which effectively splits the power of our votes right down the middle. So our power to effect change is virtually eliminated by this one simple con job.

For our votes to have the power necessary to "really" take back control of Congress, we must unite our votes and cast them in a way that will be FELT! We have to set aside the superficial, partisan differences and vote to accomplish something far more important than which party controls congress. We cast our votes against ALL INCUMBENTS in order to clean house and let it be known business as usual is over and politics is no longer a path to personal wealth and power.

Then we must demand the new Congress ratify the amendment to the Constitution necessary to revoke human rights protections for corporations, making it illegal for corporations and their lobbyists to interfere in government or elections, on every level, local, state and federal. The Amendment to revoke human rights protections can be found on the KTAO Project web site in the "Simple Two Step Plan" posted there. Once we close that loophole, we can legally kick out all the corporate lobbyists.

RobertM said...

Until we accomplish this, no meaningful change is possible. The powers-that-be will simply use the powers of government, their lawyerly minions and control over the courts to squash any attempt to end their reign. We have to first take back control of our government. Then, we have to eliminate their ability to create unlimited wealth out of thin air by taking away their total control over our monetary system. Once we do these few things, it will then be possible to seriously discuss how to undo the damage they have done.

Nothing of consequence can be solved until we take these powers away from these people. And, we can't do that without a plan. The people we are up against have plans within plans. They need plans within plans because they rely on the power of deception in order to prevail. The good news is, we only need the simple truth and this simple plan to defeat them and turn things around.

We have empowered the Congress to put a stop to a great deal of the corruption that grips our government and our nation. We just need to fill it with people that are actually interested in stopping that corruption and return the United States to the Constitutional Republic we are supposed to be. So, please, join or start a Fire Congress Meetup Group and help us recruit enough voters (and inspire non-voters) to vote against their incumbents in the upcoming elections. We CAN unite the power of our votes to effect sweeping change and put an end to corporate rule of our country and our lives.

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