Some of the best analysis I have seen on the issue is by Bill Frezza. He’s one of the good guys. He writes in Forbes Magazine, often training his razor sharp darts at the crony crapitalist rip-off artists and the big government buffoons who enable them.
I am certain that you will be hard pressed to find systematic illegal activity at Goldman Sachs. These people are lawyered up to the hilt. They know more about securities regulations than the people who wrote them (which I suppose isn't saying much). They know exactly how close to the line they can operate.
No, Goldman Sachs is not a law breaker. With all the former executives and cronies it has parachuted into the halls of government and all the money it showers on politicians running for office, it is actually a law maker. And that is the problem.TARP was an inside job. The crooks are still on the inside...
Thanks to this last banking crisis, the lines between the Treasury, the Federal Reserve, the Executive branch, and Goldman Sachs have all but disappeared. Using the entirely legal means of calling in chits from both political parties in its hour of need, Goldman Sachs looted the Treasury to save it from a liquidity crisis, cover its speculative investment errors, and make good on winning gambling bets that would have been uncollectable had Uncle Sam not stepped in to bail out counterparties like AIG.Feel Poorer: The bailouts stole money from you and me, devalued our savings and eroded our spending power...
Paying back the bailout money to the one entity that has the power to print it does not forgive the sin. In fact, the very act of printing that money stole value from its rightful owners, whose currency was debased, never to be made whole. The notion that the financial system would not have recovered if not for the federal bailouts is a self-serving lie. Yes, some of our largest financial institutions would have been swept away. Yes, their stockholders would have been wiped out-and deservedly so. But the underlying assets would have still been there, ready to be apportioned by a bankruptcy judge. And a lesson would have been learned not soon to be forgotten.Think more government regulation will fix it?
The Dodd-Frank legislation does nothing but institutionalize their too big to fail status, while making it harder for would-be competitors to rise to challenge them.
This is not real market capitalism as it once was, should be, and could be again. This is crony capitalism of the worst order. (Bill Frezza)
... And it's all brought to you by corrupt politicians, clueless bureaucrats, and the Wall Street moles who infest our government.
