The Government of Goldmann Sachs - Some companies get our tax money easier than others
Sean Scallon
January 13, 2009
The big three remaining U.S. automakers finally got their share of the bailout, tax-payer set aside by the U.S. Treasury, although it wasnīt easy. GM, Ford and Chrysler, all three had to jump through several hoops, along with soaring over the fountains at Cesarīs Palace and climb Mt. Everest, in order to get money from the TARP fund, the publicīs money set aside to help out ailing businesses by giving them liquidity to continue their operations.
Indeed, the CEOīs of the Big Three were practically humiliated in public: they were attacked in Congressional hearings; saw their pleas for help go unanswered by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson; saw votes in the U.S. Senate on their bailout package die twice due to filibusters and they were even admonished for flying to D.C. on their own Lear jets.
Would it have made any difference if they hitchhiked?
And yet, while U.S. automakers have had to beg with tin cups just to get a little money to avoid bankruptcy, insurance conglomerate AIG borrowed up to $85 billion in taxpayer money to stave off collapse, blew through that money and has borrowed an additional $42 billion without so much as putting down a request in writing.
Theyīve done this even though theyīve spent millions in tax payer money on conferences in posh resorts and hunting retreats for its executives.
Did the CEOs of the Big Three ever do that?
No, but apparently AIG can continue to borrow money and burn right through it as if they were lighting fireplaces and theyīre not required to get a vote in Congress.
What gives?
When you realize whoīs really running the show as far as the U.S. government is concerned, then youīll know why AIG was saved and U.S. automakers were put through a ringers even though they only asked for a fraction of what AIG has ripped out of taxpayer pockets.
This is the government is the government of Goldmann Sachs. By Goldmann Sachs. For Goldmann Sachs.
You seem, AIG owes a lot money to Goldmann Sachs, $25 billion to be exact. And if AIG had failed back in September of this past year, many feared a chain reaction that could have taken down Goldmann as well.
And when you have a government of Goldmann Sachs, by Goldmann Sachs, for Goldmann Sachs, you just canīt let that happen.
Thatīs why AIG saved and another financial company, Shearson Lehman Brothers was allowed to fail. Lehmann wasnīt as tied into Goldmann Sachs and thatīs all there was to it. The same was true with Merrill Lynch.
What all these bailouts show is how much economic power has shifted in the country from manufacturing to finance.
Once upon a time, a man like GM Chairman "Engine" Charlie Wilson could become Secretary of Defense and say with a straight face "Whatīs good for GM is good for America."
Now itīs "Whatīs good for Goldmann Sachs is good for America." The Feds are eager to help Goldmann Sachs. They had to be dragged kicking and screaming to help U.S. automakers.
Well, I suppose that becomes true when the amount of wealth created in the country by manufacturing declines as manufacturing is outsourced to other countries and or left to waste compared to the wealth generated by financials like Goldmann Sachs.
No doubt if the U.S. was facing the kind of financial crisis 50 years ago as it is today, the Feds would go all out to help GM and the other auto companies.
But today power rests with those who create money out of thin air rather than in the value of real things, things that people make with their own bare hands.
Itīs a simple matter of the golden rule, he who has the gold makes the rules (or I should say he who creates the dollars since neither the Feds nor Goldmann is too interested in gold).
And donīt expect that to change with the change in administrations in the White House. Yes, former Goldmann chair Henry Paulson and his Goldmann acolytes in the Treasury Department will depart when Obama and his team comes in.
But that economic team Obama has put together has been largely influenced by the hidden hand of another former Goldmann chairman and former Treasury Secretary, Robert Rubin.
Gee, two Treasury Secretaries, two Goldmann Sachs veterans. What a coincidence!
Whatīs not a coincidence is the wealth transfer that is going on from the American people to such global financial companies like Goldmann Sachs. The government may very well think that it has power with its printing press to be the backstop for the free market. The sad reality is they become more the servant of the financials by saving companies like AIG and employing Goldmannīs people in key positions in the Federal Reserve System, the White House and the Treasury Department. That power is going to be used by financials to keep themselves afloat and to dictate humiliating terms to other companies like auto makers for federal funds.
And they do so because they can. This is their government after all, not yours.
Sean Scallon is a freelance writer and newspaper reporter who lives in Arkansaw, Wisconsin. His work has appeared in Chronicles: A magazine of American Culture. His first-ever book: Beating the Powers that Be: Independent Political Movements and Parties of the Upper Midwest and their Relevance in Third-party Politics of Today is now out on sale from Publish America
Indeed, the CEOīs of the Big Three were practically humiliated in public: they were attacked in Congressional hearings; saw their pleas for help go unanswered by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson; saw votes in the U.S. Senate on their bailout package die twice due to filibusters and they were even admonished for flying to D.C. on their own Lear jets.
Would it have made any difference if they hitchhiked?
And yet, while U.S. automakers have had to beg with tin cups just to get a little money to avoid bankruptcy, insurance conglomerate AIG borrowed up to $85 billion in taxpayer money to stave off collapse, blew through that money and has borrowed an additional $42 billion without so much as putting down a request in writing.
Theyīve done this even though theyīve spent millions in tax payer money on conferences in posh resorts and hunting retreats for its executives.
Did the CEOs of the Big Three ever do that?
No, but apparently AIG can continue to borrow money and burn right through it as if they were lighting fireplaces and theyīre not required to get a vote in Congress.
What gives?
When you realize whoīs really running the show as far as the U.S. government is concerned, then youīll know why AIG was saved and U.S. automakers were put through a ringers even though they only asked for a fraction of what AIG has ripped out of taxpayer pockets.
This is the government is the government of Goldmann Sachs. By Goldmann Sachs. For Goldmann Sachs.
You seem, AIG owes a lot money to Goldmann Sachs, $25 billion to be exact. And if AIG had failed back in September of this past year, many feared a chain reaction that could have taken down Goldmann as well.
And when you have a government of Goldmann Sachs, by Goldmann Sachs, for Goldmann Sachs, you just canīt let that happen.
Thatīs why AIG saved and another financial company, Shearson Lehman Brothers was allowed to fail. Lehmann wasnīt as tied into Goldmann Sachs and thatīs all there was to it. The same was true with Merrill Lynch.
What all these bailouts show is how much economic power has shifted in the country from manufacturing to finance.
Once upon a time, a man like GM Chairman "Engine" Charlie Wilson could become Secretary of Defense and say with a straight face "Whatīs good for GM is good for America."
Now itīs "Whatīs good for Goldmann Sachs is good for America." The Feds are eager to help Goldmann Sachs. They had to be dragged kicking and screaming to help U.S. automakers.
Well, I suppose that becomes true when the amount of wealth created in the country by manufacturing declines as manufacturing is outsourced to other countries and or left to waste compared to the wealth generated by financials like Goldmann Sachs.
No doubt if the U.S. was facing the kind of financial crisis 50 years ago as it is today, the Feds would go all out to help GM and the other auto companies.
But today power rests with those who create money out of thin air rather than in the value of real things, things that people make with their own bare hands.
Itīs a simple matter of the golden rule, he who has the gold makes the rules (or I should say he who creates the dollars since neither the Feds nor Goldmann is too interested in gold).
And donīt expect that to change with the change in administrations in the White House. Yes, former Goldmann chair Henry Paulson and his Goldmann acolytes in the Treasury Department will depart when Obama and his team comes in.
But that economic team Obama has put together has been largely influenced by the hidden hand of another former Goldmann chairman and former Treasury Secretary, Robert Rubin.
Gee, two Treasury Secretaries, two Goldmann Sachs veterans. What a coincidence!
Whatīs not a coincidence is the wealth transfer that is going on from the American people to such global financial companies like Goldmann Sachs. The government may very well think that it has power with its printing press to be the backstop for the free market. The sad reality is they become more the servant of the financials by saving companies like AIG and employing Goldmannīs people in key positions in the Federal Reserve System, the White House and the Treasury Department. That power is going to be used by financials to keep themselves afloat and to dictate humiliating terms to other companies like auto makers for federal funds.
And they do so because they can. This is their government after all, not yours.
Sean Scallon is a freelance writer and newspaper reporter who lives in Arkansaw, Wisconsin. His work has appeared in Chronicles: A magazine of American Culture. His first-ever book: Beating the Powers that Be: Independent Political Movements and Parties of the Upper Midwest and their Relevance in Third-party Politics of Today is now out on sale from Publish America