How Goldman Sachs Made Tens Of Billions Of Dollars From The Economic Collapse Of America In Four Easy Steps
Investment banking giant Goldman Sachs has become perhaps the most prominent symbol for everything that is wrong with the U.S. financial system, but most Americans cannot even begin to explain what they do or how they have made tens of billions of dollars from the economic collapse of America. The truth is that what Goldman Sachs did was fairly simple, and there may not have even been anything "illegal" about it (although they are now being investigated by the SEC among others).
The following is how Goldman Sachs made tens of billions of dollars from the economic collapse of America in four easy steps....
Step 1: Sell mortgage-related securities that are absolute junk to trusting clients at vastly overinflated prices.
Step 2: Bet against those same mortgage-related securities and make massive bets against the U.S. housing market so that your firm will make massive profits when the U.S. economy collapses.
Step 3: Have ex-Goldman executives in key positions of power in the U.S. government so that bailout money can be funneled to entities such as AIG that Goldman has made these bets with so that they can get paid after they win their bets.
Step 4: Collect the profits - Goldman Sachs is having their "most successful year" and will end up reporting approximately $50 billion in revenue for 2009.
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Read the rest of the story. Click here.
** regarding this line in the article "there may not have even been anything "illegal" about it ":
If you spread out a dollars worth of coins on to a table and arrange them into 4 equal piles (25 cents each), you CANNOT sell those piles at 60 cents each without committing fraud. Goldman knew fully well they were selling their 'financial innovations' for much more than the sum of its' parts.
What we must begin to look at as a nation is "the system" and "our government" that allowed this fraud with the full knowledge of the consequences.
ReplyDeleteWhile we are led to believe that our democracy functions as a result of "free" elections it becomes more and more apparent that it does not.
SciFi movies of years past depicted a country controlled by and ruled by corporations with little regard for humanity or mankind.
As we enter the second decade of the 21st century we are witnessing the premise in these old scifi movies coming true.
But control and manipulation as we are experiencing can only occur when "the people" allow it or better said when the people fear it.
There is much talk of our loss of freedoms in this country - even the erosion of our 1st and 5th Amendment rights. The right to protest is being stifled. People are simply "affraid" to do so.
The other aspect of control and manipulation is to keep a population in economic dire straights. When we struggle to survive and to provide the basic needs for our families we do not and cannot act against tyranny and control.
Power is very intoxicating. Many whom we have given power to are "intoxicated" with it.
We need to look at the very basis of our system. Begin to honor the Constitution and bring to justice those who disregard it be they elected officials or heads of corporations. A dual system of governance - one for them and one for the rest of us - will surly lead to more of the same.
More economic collapse - perhaps intentional - so as to continue the their goals of control.
With each act of terrorism we lose more freedoms. Fear is our biggest enemy. I believe that fear is used by more then just those radical elements in their Jihad.
Thomas Jefferson said it well: "When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.
Where are the Thomas Jefferson's of our times when we need them the most?
View the video on this link:
http://jeffdickstein.com/donate.aspx
Note: This link is a donation page for an attorney representing a couple pro bono in a case to be heard in the United States Supreme Court. By offering this link I am not promoting or suggesting that anyone support this cause. It is the only way I can share this video in this comment.
Ever feel like your in another time dimension where your observable events go unnoticed by others?..my friggin heads going to burst.........
ReplyDeletePPIP May Have INCREASED the Amount of Some Toxic Assets
Citigroup, Bank of America and other players are already gaming the program (and see this), which will create unintended consequences.
Bloomberg has some choice quotes:
It’s “absolutely ridiculous” that banks, which were expected to reduce their holding of such volatile mortgage securities, bought them before the government program was running and may now profit, said Michael Schlachter, managing director of Wilshire Associates, the Santa Monica, California- based investment-consulting firm. “Some of them created this mess, and they are making a killing undoing it” ...
“Any time the government says, ‘We’re going to buy something in the securities market,’ they’re putting out a sign that says, ‘Free money, come and get it’,” he said.
Well yes . . . isn't that what looting is all about?
http://tinyurl.com/62wa9t