The Mock Trial of Goldman Sachs

We know what Goldman Sachs stands for: profit for Goldman no matter the cost, no matter the contagion to the rest of the system. Goldman Sachs has become a blight, an infection on the global financial system. As a normally functioning investment bank, Goldman might have made sense but it became a pathogenic organism when it tried to serve both a commercial interest and an investment one. The latter function threatens and contaminates the survival of the former one.

When Goldman became a bank holding company, it began to impair the functioning of a commercial bank. A commercial bank is-- "An institution which accepts deposits, makes business loans, and offers related services. Commercial banks also allow for a variety of deposit accounts, such as checking, savings, and time deposit. These institutions are run to make a profit and owned by a group of individuals, yet some may be members of the Federal Reserve System. While commercial banks offer services to individuals, they are primarily concerned with receiving deposits and lending to businesses."

Being an investment bank (which only accepts clients that have at least $10 million) and also acting as a commercial bank, threatens the survival of the global financial system. The banking system was created to serve all the people: so when the system deviates to only create great wealth for the few, it becomes defective and afflicts the sound functioning of a system. Besides which, GS threatens the survival of those it defrauds.

What is missing is the antibiotic that can make the financial system immune to greed, fraud and corruption. The answer is good and fair regulation and healthy investigation into the fraud that caused the financial meltdown in 2008. It is necessary for TBTF banks to break into smaller more manageable parts. Combined with that should be a system that regulates the derivatives, the CDOs and CDS that now plague the financial system.

Because the regulatory system has failed and the justice system refuses to investigate that failure, the Occupy Wall Street movement is trying to point the way to preventing the growth of the plague of corruption which is now called the banking system. They have started by putting Goldman Sachs on trial and that is more than this government has done!

Occupy protesters declare Goldman Sachs guilty, get arrested
By Gianna Palmer - McClatchy Newspapers

NEW YORK — In the latest round of demonstrations calling for corporate accountability, 16 Occupy Wall Street protesters were arrested in front of the global headquarters of Goldman Sachs in lower Manhattan.

A New York Police Department spokesperson confirmed that nine men and seven women were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

The protest began with a mock trial of the giant investment firm at 10 a.m. in Zuccotti Park, the protesters' base. During "A People's Hearing of Goldman Sachs," a group gathered to hear testimony from people who shared stories of how they were directly affected by Goldman Sachs' influence on financial markets. Civil rights activist and Princeton professor Cornel West also spoke at the panel, as did journalists Chris Hedges and Nomi Prins.

A five-month McClatchy investigation in 2009 revealed how Goldman Sachs peddled billions of dollars in shaky securities tied to subprime mortgages on unsuspecting pension funds, insurance companies and other investors when it concluded that the housing bubble would burst.

Shortly before noon, the protesters began to make their way to 200 West St., Goldman's headquarters.

"Banks got bailed out, we got sold out," the protesters chanted as they walked. Some drummed, other held signs. One protester held a piece of cardboard that read simply, "GREED." Another said: "Goldman Sucks."

Police with plastic handcuffs dangling from their belts walked alongside the demonstrators as they marched north on Church Street, past the National September 11 Memorial. The group arrived at the Goldman Sachs building just before 12:30 p.m.

At least 19 police offers stood on the pedestrian walkway watching as protesters blocked the front entrance of the building and delivered their "guilty" verdict. Soon, a white-shirted police officer entered the crowd with a megaphone and asked the protesters to leave. By this time, a small group had sat in a circle on the ground.

"You will be arrested, I repeat, you will be arrested," the officer told the group when they stayed sitting, arms linked.

The majority of people moved to a nearby walkway.

"We stopped listening to orders, when will you?" a man shouted in the direction of the police, who were now gathered around the remaining group, all of whom would be arrested.

Among the first was activist Bill Talen, commonly known as Reverend Billy — an activist actor who was led away in plastic cuffs. The arrests were largely a nonviolent affair, though some protesters struggled as the officers picked them up by their hands and feet.

Read the rest of the article here

You can hear the broadcast of the Mock Trial here (Go down the archive page to Public Trial of Goldman Sachs by Occupy Wall Street and push the Play button or download on the right-hand side.)