Quote from asiaprop:the whole point is that under whatever administration the same would have happened. Its the people who got burned the most (mostly out of sheer greed) or who dont understand a thing about capitalism are the ones that scream the loudest. [/i]
You sound very young and sincere, but you need to consider a wider context.
The ordinary people have been getting burned by Wall Street at least since the Reagen Administration.
My first comments concerns the role of Wall Street in general, and GS is the quintessential member of that privileged community.
A third world country is one without capitol, and Wall Street has made raising capitol by issuing stock hazardous, and have done substantial harm to the country.
There are three ways that Wall Street is directly responsible for the deindustralization of America.
1. Leveraged buyouts destroying companies with R&D budgets, prudent reserves, and well funded pensions plans.
2. Naked short selling of small companies.
3. Requiring foreign manufacturing as a prerequisite for underwriting a stock issue.
Companies that had retained earnings for R&D budgets, fully funded pension funds, and owned the ground they sat on became targets for hostile takeovers and leveraged buyouts.
The company that I worked for in 1988 was slaughtered, went from 2800 employees to 70 in a hostile takeover because they were into heavy aerospace R&D and had enough retained earnings to weather the ups and downs of that business, but KKR helped Alcoa slice and dice them until only the secret military business exists.
Now where do you think the funds came from for KKR to loan to Alcoa to make the tender offer? Well mainly from pension funds and insurance companies. That is right. Main street supplies the money to destroy main street jobs.
This activity also resulted in the likes of ATT and IBM and Ford and every company that wanted to survive,spending money that they intended for R&D buying back their own stock instead of doing research.
Wall Street would not/does not underwrite companies that wanted to manufacture in the US. It has deprived American Manufacturing of capitol, while enthusiastically underwriting enterprises whose business plan featured sending the manufacture of goods overseas that are 97% capitol intensive. That is that they had a labor component of 3%, less than the transportation cost back to the states. It made no sense but out the work went because WS wanted it that way.
I am in favor of more regulation in CERTAIN LIMITED areas but the problem is that those who enact laws are the ones that understand the system the least, a pity really.
Truth is that we had a perfectly workable set of regulations put in place during the presidency of TR and FDR. They just don't allow the rich to get obscenely rich.
Fact is that most Americans choose less government over more, less regulation over more regulation, less taxes over more taxes.
You may speak for yourself, but I doubt that you have consulted an opinion pole. The truth is that Americans are willing to pay higher taxes for things like the environment and healthcare. (And Yes, I might not be as wealthy as you, but I have payed hundreds of thousands in taxes in my lifetime. )
What politicians have done is exactly the opposite. So, I strongly suggest that those who cant stand GS succeeding to take it up with the very same people they voted for.
We are doing that. The fact is that the people voted for the most liberal candidate available in the expectation of getting some fairer rules for the game enforced instead of ignored.
Why do those who think they postulate ethical corporate behavior have no issues with American companies profiting from child labor, oil corporations destroying whole land masses, logging companies bribing their way through foreign governments?
Actually we have precisely those ethical issues with multinationals. The fact is that the profits from offshoreing are accruing to a few individuals while the misery and environmental harm accrue among the unemployed here and the exploited there. It is sick that Guys with guchi loafers, manicures and 50K smiles that must curse to prove that they are manly, get all worked up and angry when they think of trade that requires ethical international environmental and labor laws in the manufacturing country so that we don't export both jobs and misery.
Could it perhaps be that as long as it does not happen in front of our house we dont need to care about and we look away as long as others outside our country take the shit? Thats in my view the purest form of hypocracy. The system is what it is, taking advantage in whatever way as long as one acts within legal boundaries is how the country of America was discovered, conquered, expanded. Suddenly what GS is doing is wrong?
It is not suddenly wrong. It has always been wrong. It has just been that explaining how they were being put out of work with their own pension money, and their taxes and young people to fight wars and petrol the sea lanes and make the world safe for commerce, has up to this year, put most people to sleep. If it takes more than 30 sec to explain you can get away with almost anything for quite a while in this country.
Now Goldman, a huge TARP recipient is not using that money to loan to business to manufacture. No they borrowing from the discount window at zero precent and using that taxpayer capitol to TRADE.
Jobs created?
A hundred?
Goods and services created zero.
Have Goldman and WS acted as a good citizens of the US.
I don't think so.
