Goldman Sachs: "Robbing the Poor and Giving to the Rich"

At this moment, Goldman Sachs's CEO has embarked on a major public relations campaign to improve the image of the investment bank amongst the ordinary population.  Lloyd Blankfein has been appearing on various media outlets to set forth his views on the global economy, the fiscal cliff, the Libor scandal, the Dodd-Frank bill, TARP, etc.  You can find all his opinions outlined here.

In his media blitz, Blankfein looks at best like a mediocre proponent of some change but not too much.  He sounds so fair and forthright.  He wants the public to have a kinder view of his bank.  He is on a campaign to make Goldman Sachs appear more like an ordinary public bank that incidentally collects deposits but only from the very wealthiest people.  Clients must have at least $10 million in order to deal with Goldman.

Blankfein gives to charities, one of which is called the Robin Hood Foundation.  He neglects to tell us about his bank's modern Robin Hoodwinking and the other major blots on the character and actions of Goldman.  These blots you can reprise here.

So about Goldman Sachs in Hindsight, Blankfein says:

"While we didn’t necessarily have to have a good dialogue with consumers, it turns out in hindsight we should have had a better dialogue with taxpayers and citizens, because it turns out – and we should have known this – we play a very big part in their lives. And now we know ourselves that they play a very big part in our lives."

There is a little bit of understatement here.  He forgot to mention the millions of dollars Goldman has spent to lobby against bank reform; he neglected to mention how his bank effectively transferred the wealth of pensions, savings and homeowners  ("those taxpayers and citizens") to the richest in society through fees and fraudulent CDOs:  he dis-remembered those  bets Goldman made against the housing market, a market that they helped to corrupt.  He by-passed how Goldman Sachs bankers who felt duty-bound to give their labor  to the public by taking government jobs really gave Goldman more power and influence to do what it wanted.  These Goldman government guys have only accelerated and encouraged the enrichment of the top 1% which leads to the impoverishment of the 99%.  Finally, he neglected to mention that by bailing out the failure of a bank that is Goldman Sachs, the economy still has not recovered.

You can read about Goldman's fraud during the financial meltdown here.

Yes, indeed, bailing out Goldman Sachs played a very big part in the lives of the taxpayers.

Lloyd, that is your legacy and not what you dream it to be.