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Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Goldman Sucks

Yesterday past and present executives of Goldman Sachs, (you know, one of those "too big to fail" banks that gambled with our money, and then when they almost collapsed, we bailed out with our tax dollars?), appeared in front of Congress for an ass whupping. Sen. Carl Levin and others on a Senate group impaneled to investigate charges of fraud that the SEC has brought against Goldman attempted to get answers from Daniel Sparks, Fab Tourree and other representatives from the bank, but it was all for naught. The Goldman assholes had an army of lawyers who represent assholes sitting behind them, and it was evident from the very first question that Goldman was heavily "lawyered up". The Goldman men wouldn't even answer simple "yes" or "no" questions. At one point, Sen. Levin, quoting a memo from Goldman in which the phrase "shitty deal" was used, asked Sparks if he thought the deal was shitty. Sparks wouldn't answer. So Sen. Levin just kept repeating the phrase "shitty deal" over and over. If the hearing wasn't so serious, it would have been hilarious.
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It's hard to understand exactly the scheme that Goldman cooked up, even financial experts admit to not even understanding it fully. It has something to do with Goldman selling securities which were backed by those infamous toxic subprime loans, but then betting against those securities, while not disclosing to their very customers their bets. In other words, it's like a car salesman selling you a car that he knows is a lemon, and then taking out an insurance policy for when that cars breaks down, so that when the car collapses, the car salesman collects the insurance money. Goldman made millions from this scheme.
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But even though we're not financial experts, and we certainly don't understand how Wall Street works, we do know right from wrong, and if this is what Goldman did, it's wrong, wrong, wrong. Which is why Congress is now trying to pass financial reform, to make sure that something like this doesn't happen again. But guess who's blocking that financial reform bill? Yes, you know it's coming, the Republicans.
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Don't you love it? The Republicans really believe they deserve the right to hold power in Congress, but yet they blocked health care for Americans, and now they're siding with the big banks over the American tax payers. The extent to which the Republican party is tone deaf, absolutely out of touch with anything of interest to mainstream America, is shocking. Maybe we should tell the Republicans we'll vote for them this fall, and then take out insurance policies for when they lose their elections. We'll make millions!

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