Goldman Sachs: An Enemy of the People

We are fortunate to have Bill Black, an honest man who has had experience with finding and prosecuting financial "white collar" criminals.  It is with much patience and persistence that he tirelessly continues to write, talk and generally keep the public informed about the lack of prosecution of executives who committed "accounting control fraud" which led to the financial meltdown and resultant recession in 2008.

Without his guidance, we would have been inclined, along with the banks, to forget the frauds that were perpetrated on the American people (and the world) by the too big to fail banks on Wall Street.  As usual, Goldman Sachs is front and centre in the discussion from an excerpt from Black's recent article:

Bill Black:  Why the World Economic Forum and Goldman Sachs are Capitalism's Worst Enemies
By Bill Black - Naked Capitalism
It is fitting that Goldman Sachs is the recipient of this year’s “Public Eye” designation, but it is even more fitting that it is being announced during the World Economic Forum (WEF) at Davos. Goldman Sachs exemplifies the travesty that WEF has created. It is not the worst of the worst. It is representative of the financial world of systemically dangerous institutions (SDIs) that are spreading crony capitalism through the West. The SDIs are the so-called “too big to fail (or prosecute)” banks.
The ability of the SDIs to commit fraud with impunity from the criminal laws is a defining element of crony capitalism. The impunity and implicit national subsidies to SDIs combine to make “free markets” an oxymoron. The SDIs’ economic power translates easily into dominant political power. Crony capitalism cripples markets and democracy.

The ability of the SDIs’ senior officers to commit massive frauds with impunity from the criminal laws makes “control fraud” a “sure thing.” Control fraud will make the largest banks’ senior officers exceptionally wealthy very quickly – but it will also cause severe harm to the public (and often the bank). Control fraud occurs when the persons who control a seemingly legitimate entity use it as a “weapon” to defraud. In finance, accounting is the “weapon of choice.” It is important to remember, however, that other forms of control fraud maim and kill hundreds of thousands and cause grave environmental damage. We must always remember the infant formula scandal in China where 300,000 infants were hospitalized with kidney stones due to consumer frauds that drove every honest manufacturer out of business.

Please read the entire article here